For the Love of Garnet
by RobertDogwood
Summary: Zidane and Garnet's marriage is on the rocks and then she suddenly disappears! PG-13 for slight nudity and language
1. Default Chapter

For the Love of Garnet

RobertDogwood@aol.com

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft

Song Lyrics are the intellectual property of their respective owners

Original plot Copyright RobertDogwood 2001

Rated GP-13 - Action/Adventure, Humor, Romance

Chapter One

_ What to do when I felt lonely..._

That was the only thing you couldn't teach me

But we need to figure out the

answer for ourselves...

I'm so happy I met everyone...

I wish we could've gone on more adventures

But I guess we all have to say goodbye someday.

Everyone...

Thank you.

Farewell.

My memories will be part of the sky...

Everyone was there. Everyone was there to watch the special performance of _ I Want to be Your Canary _ presented by Tantalus. Everyone was there, who had played a part in the quest to save Gaia.

__

"Alone for a while I've been searching through the dark  
For traces of the love you left inside my lonely heart"

Everyone was there - Cid and Lady Hilda and Eiko - Steiner and Beatrix - Vivi and Puck, in fact there were a number of Vivi's there.

__

"To weave by picking up the pieces that remain  
Meolodies of life - love's lost refrain"

Everyone was there to watch the performance of a life time - Freya and Sir Fratley - Amarant and Lani. Everyone was there - even Quina - and of course the recently crowned Queen of Alexandria - Garnet Til Alexandros 17th.

__

"Our paths they did cross, though I cannot say why  
We met, we laughed, we held on fast, and then we said goodbye"

Yes, everyone was there..........except for Zidane, thought Garnet desolately. "If he were going to ever show up again, it would have been on today of all days," the Queen realized.

"Oh, Zidane" she sighed aloud. Recognizing that Steiner had moved closer to her, as she sat on her balcony on the second floor of the palace, Garnet said no more.

Why didn't he come back? Better still, why didn't he come for her? "He said he loved me," Garnet thought. "Was he just leading me on?" she wondered.

__

"And who'll hear the echoes of stories never told?  
Let them ring out loud till they unfold"

Was he alive or dead? Why couldn't they find out?

As soon as Garnet had returned to Alexandria, she had sent out enough men to search for Zidane to scour half the known world. When they all came back, one thing was certain - no one knew anything for sure.

One said Zidane was dead, for sure. He'd seen the grave. Five more said he was horribly disfigured and refused to return to Alexandria, because of not wanting pity from his old comrades. Ten said he was dying of a malignant disease. Two said he was happily married and already had children, which of course was an impossibility unless he had it with a creature that had a quicker gestation time than humans. Fifty-five said they could find no trace of him.

"Why didn't he come back to me?" Garnet thought again. "He makes me so mad, I could spit. And he makes me so sad, I could weep."

"My little monkey boy," she giggled, remembering the times Zidane would wrap his tail around anything he could find and swing back and forth just enough above that the ever angry Steiner could not reach him with his wild thrashing.

"I wonder what affect that little idiosyncrasy would have had on the formation of our children?" Garnet thought. "I guess we'll never know," she sighed. "It takes two to make a child and now there's only me."

Garnet never ever allowed herself to think in terms of sex, only in the making of an heir to the throne. She was now seventeen - in their world a prime marrying age. But now there was no one she wanted to invite for dinner, much less marry. "If Zidane was here right now," Garnet thought, "I'd kill him myself for what he's put me through."

__

"In my dearest memories, I see you reaching out to me  
Though you're gone, I still believe that you can call out my name"

As the play began, Garnet attempted to empty her mind of her sad thoughts as she loved this play most of all, but it was futile, she realized. She began to half listen as she scanned the huge crowd that had gathered for the performance. Her heart suddenly quickened when she thought she saw him, but no - it wasn't him.

__

"A voice from the past, joining yours and mine  
Adding up the layers of harmony"

Garnet glanced back at the stage hearing one of her favorite scenes, when Marcus and Cornelia meet secretly at night to declare and pledge their love. "Strange, isn't it?" Garnet thought. "How much Zidane and I resemble the characters in the play? Although I don't think he would much prefer to be called a peasant," she giggled to herself.

__

"And so it goes, on and on  
Melodies of life,  
To the sky beyond the flying birds - forever and beyond"

But wait - what did she just hear Marcus intone? Garnet didn't remember ever hearing that line - "No cloud, no squall shall hinder us!"

"Where did that come from?" she wondered.

When Cornelia recited "O, love is the sweetest joy and the wildest woe," Garnet thought to herself, "No truer words were ever spoken."

__

"So far and away, see the bird as it flies by  
Gliding through the shadows of the clouds up in the sky"

As the play moved on, Garnet only half listened and watched not at all, as she continued to search the crowd desperately looking for Zidane. She saw all of her old friends were here to celebrate with her the almost completely rebuilt Alexandria and the rebirth of her country. All, except one. The most important one to her.

__

"I've laid my memories and dreams upon those wings  
Leave them now and see what tomorrow brings"

Garnet sadly decided the search was futile fore Zidane was not here nor would he ever be here again. The tears formed quickly in her eyes and ran silently down her face, but her expression never changed. She was the Queen, after all and her subjects should never see her weeping.

__

"In your dearest memories, do you remember loving me?  
Was it fate that brought us close and now leaves me behind?"

Turning her attention back to the performance, Garnet watched what she considered the saddest part of the play - Marcus waiting in vain by the morning dock for Cornelia to meet him. She listened as Marcus implored, "The time for our departure is long past. Where is Cornelia?" Tears continued to run down Garnet's beautiful face, although she wasn't certain now if she was crying for herself or the sadness of the scene as Marcus continued, "She told me that she couldn't live without me."

She watched as Marcus questioned, "Could she have betrayed me?" and moved toward the center stage. Turning his back to the audience, Marcus recited, "I beseech thee, wondrous moonlight, grant me my only wish."

__

"If I should leave this lonely world behind  
Your voice will still remember our meolody"

Garnet couldn't believe her own eyes as Marcus suddenly whirled casting his cloak aside revealing his true identity as he replied, "Bring my beloved Garnet to me!"

It was Zidane! It was Zidane! It was Zidane! The same thought seemed stuck in her mind as she scarcely felt herself rise up from her chair and peer over the balcony. Garnet lifted her long gown off the floor and ran behind her ornate chair to the door that Steiner and Beatrix guarded. When she reached it, both Steiner and Beatrix kept their arms down blocking her path.

Steiner smiled at the young queen as he pushed his side open and Beatrix bowed with a flourish indicating with her right hand that Garnet should pass. Garnet ran down the stairs to the first floor as fast as she could taking dainty steps and through the door and into the groundlings. As she attempted to slip through the large crowd, she careened into someone and her pedant flew off and behind her.

__

"Now I know we'll carry on  
Melodies of life."

Garnet turned back toward her lost pedant, a look of total anguish written across her beautiful features. As precious as her pedant was to her, Garnet knew it meant absolutely nothing to her compared to Zidane, so she whirled and continued to run on her way through the audience, who had parted for their Queen.

As Zidane stepped up to the very forefront of the stage, Garnet reached up with her hands and flung her crown off onto the ground. With anguish and joy clearly mixed on the young Queen's face, she jumped on the stage in one large leap, her arms spread wide. Zidane reached out in anticipation of catching her.

__

"Come circle round and grow deep in our hearts  
As long as we remember"

Reaching out with his powerful hands and placing them around her slim waist as she leaped, he drew her into him effortlessly as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Garnet stepped back, closely examining Zidane as if she believed he was just a figment of her imagination. Zidane grinned at her in a slightly ironical manner with a slight quirk of his smile. Garnet flung herself at Zidane again pushing him slightly off balance and in her present combination of joy at finally seeing him safe at last and rage about the pain he put her through in his selfishness, she struck out at him, hitting him with her closed fist - one, two, three times.

Zidane gently stroked the back of her hair and then drew her face into his shoulder and embraced her. As the crowd leaped to its feet in spontaneous applause, Zidane continued to stroke the back of Garnet's beautiful dark long hair.

"How did you survive...?"

"I didn't have a choice."  
"I had to live."  
"I wanted to come home to you."

"So...  
I sang your song."

"Our song."

Within a week of Zidane's return, he had swept Garnet into a whirlwind romance where they were together practically every minute of the day, but never all night. Much to Zidane's great disappointment, Garnet insisted as the Queen her behavior had to be completely circumspect and above suspicion.

At the end of the week, Zidane knelt on one knee one evening and, taking Garnet's hands in his, solemnly asked her to marry him. Garnet giggled to see him in such a position appearing so earnest, but she simply nodded her head with a huge smile spread across her beautiful face.

Bans were posted and within a fortnight they were walking down the aisle together in the marriage of the century, as least as far as most of the residents of Alexandria were concerned.

Later in the evening, Garnet lay completely bare under a sheet awaiting Zidane to exit the bathroom. The door opened and Zidane stood in his natural state, his tail twitching back and forth as if it was an entity separate from him. Blushing crimson, Garnet did not avert her eyes but forced herself to drink in every inch and aspect of her beloved, understanding full well that this soon would seem a normal sight.

Zidane crossed the room to the bed and gently pulled the sheet off his bride. As he gazed down at her, Garnet willed herself to make no effort to cover herself, no matter how foreign the situation might seem to her. This was my husband, she thought to herself. It is his right.

Zidane murmured, "I love you so much, it hurts."

Raising her arms up, Garnet directed, "Come, my love."

But that was six months earlier.

Today events and circumstances were quite different from that glorious time.

"I never thought this through enough," Zidane spoke aloud. He was standing by himself near a large crowd, who were waiting for him to cut the ribbon across a new span leading in and out of Alexandria.

The _ this _ Zidane was referring to was the fact that he, as the Royal Prince because he was married to her Majesty, the Queen of Alexandria, had to dress and act accordingly.

"If Blank could see me now," Zidane thought, "he would laugh out loud." That surely was not an exaggeration as Zidane was outfitted by, not one, but two royal butlers each morning and when they were finished with him, he no longer bore any resemblance of the Zidane of old.

Today he wore a dufy blue crushed velvet shirt with accompanying pantaloons and enough lace to make two or three curtains. He felt like a complete idiot, but the people seemed to expect it of him.

As he stepped forward to cut the ribbon with a huge pair of sissors, the crowd politely applauded. "Certainly nothing like the crowd did when I showed up for Garnet," Zidane thought ruefully.

After the deed was done, Zidane turned smiling at the crowd and waved politely at them for a minute, before quickly retreating to his horse drawn coach and instructing his driver to hurry back to the palace. Zidane sank down deep in the cushioned seat, hoping to keep his identity hidden as they rode through the busy streets of Alexandria.

"Enough is enough!" Zidane thought angrily. "I've had it with this senseless playacting."

Zidane had attempted to speak with Garnet about this on a number of occasions, but the young Queen was experiencing her own problems.

Garnet, perhaps in naivety, had ordained that the lower classes should have representation in the country's ruling parliament although, of course, Garnet still retained the inherited right to veto anything she was not pleased with.

Instead of pleasing people, her edict appeared to make them more agitated than ever. The elected officials from the middle and lower classes made no concessions to each other and, in fact, fought more bitterly than the nobles did with both. Every meeting of Parliament was chaotic and Garnet had to be in attendance for practically every minute to negotiate and smooth out angry feathers or the entire legal system of her country would have ground to a halt.

Coming back into her bedroom late every night, she realized Zidane was unhappy, but she, herself, was miserable and he never seemed to recognize her pain and she certainly didn't have the energy to help him with his.

Consequently they were mostly polite with each other, making small talk on their way to their respective assignments. Except for one night, when Garnet was able to arrive unexpectedly early in hopes of a spontaneous romantic evening, but instead she and Zidane used it as an opportunity to rage against each other in an argument that began from something completely trival. Unfortunately when Garnet and Zidane became too angry, they would _ trance _ and she still blushed at the memory of that evening when Steiner and Beatrix burst into their bedroom because of all the noise emanating from it and discovered Zidane standing completely covered with long red fur and she in her skimpy, practically obscene, white thong that would magically appear covering her body whenever she went into trance. Even after all this time, Garnet had no idea where that outfit arrived from. She certainly had never worn anything like that in her life, and she hated it when her comrades thought it lay beneath her outer clothing.

Garnet was presently presiding over another long convoluted argument concerning the present rate of tariff on certain goods that were imported to Alexandria and holding her lowered head between her hands, as Zidane rode slumped on his way back to the palace.

As the royal coach rode by Adelbert Steiner, he, espying Zidane, called out a loud hello, at which Zidane blankly turned his head and gazed directly through him. When the coach had passed, Steiner worrisomely just shook his head, being deeply concerned about the emotional state of his former comrade-in-arms.

Which he brought up that evening, when he was with his lovely new bride, General Beatrix in their spartan bedroom. "You know I was thinking," Steiner began.

"Well, that must have been a unique experience for you, Adelbert," Beatrix responded with a slight grin pasted on her gorgeous features.

Turning to gaze upon her, Steiner, once again, was struck with his incredible good fortune that such a beautiful woman and formidable warrior would consent to be his wife.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Steiner continued, as Beatrix stuck out her tongue at him, "I saw Zidane today from a distance and I'm really worried about him."

"Why so?" Beatrix asked, serious now because any problem connected to Garnet was her primary concern, as she was assigned completely to the young Queen's security.

"He looked so depressed and he didn't make any recognition that he even saw me, even though he looked directly at me," Steiner explained.

"Well, Adelbert you probably have some cause for alarm because you are nothing, but completely recognizable," Beatrix responded, with an impish smile.

"Thank you," Steiner replied, nodding his head toward his beautiful bride. "But I feel I must make some effort to talk to him and discover his present difficulty."

"I too will look into this situation," Beatrix agreed.

"By the way, Beatrix," Steiner questioned, "have you given any thought to my suggestion that you change your soldiers' obscene uniforms?"

This was an old argument between the two of them, as Beatrix's female warriors were only dressed below the waist in extremely abbreviated thongs which badly insulted Steiner's code of decorum.

Beatrix, realizing this, took no offense to Steiner's constant carping about it. She gently responded, "Adelbert, I am certain it makes them much faster and thus able to defend themselves more than if they were to be weighed down with heavy armor such as your own men wear."

"That may be true in general, Beatrix but not in the fight I witnessed yesterday. One of your _ men _ was attempting to apprehend a pickpocket in a large crowd when he suddenly slashed out with a hidden knife and cut the thong completely off."

"What?!" Beatrix loudly exclaimed, completely shocked that one of her soldiers could be so badly beaten. "I certainly hope she was wearing something beneath the thong."

"Oh she was," agreed Steiner. "She was wearing her bare body," he said while smiling maliciously at Beatrix.

Beatrix flushed red and then exploded. "I suppose you were just standing there enjoying the view and not lifting a finger to help her."

Steiner's face quickly took on a hurt expression when he softly replied, "I witnessed this from the second floor of the palace. There was little I could do from such a distance."

Beatrix reached out with her hand and clasped Steiner's arm. "I'm so sorry, Adelbert. That was unworthy of me and certainly of you. I know you would never do such a thing. I was just momentarily jealous."

"Jealous of me?" Steiner thought to himself. "Whatever for?"


	2. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Two

For the Love of Garnet

By RobertDogwood@aol.com

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft

Original Plot Copyright RobertDogwood 2001

Chapter Two

It was just past midnight when Garnet silently opened the bedroom door and crept across the room on her tiptoes, holding her ornate shoes in her hand. She quickly divested herself of all her apparel, slipped on her nightgown and climbed into bed with Zidane. Pressing her barely clothed body against his, she snuggled down deeper into the extremely comfortable mattress and felt asleep immediately.

Laying beside his beautiful wife, Zidane felt nothing but despair. Something as incredible as making love to the most beautiful woman he had ever seen was now just an anathema to him, because he believed she no longer cared for him. He was just the palace _ house pet _ to be trotted out for special occasions that no one else wanted to do. How else could one explain her slipping into bed and not even checking to see if he were awake.

Listening to Garnet's rhythmic breathing, he realized she had already fallen asleep and he skillfully extradicted himself from the bed without awakening her. Kneeling on one leg, he reached under the bed and pulled out an old outfit and carried it from the bedroom in his arms until he reached the safety of the corridor. Zidane, knowing the times the palace guards went on their rounds exactly, quickly donned his outfit and crossing to a window began to let himself down from the second floor. After he disappeared from sight, a solitary figure stepped from around the corner and watched where Zidane had been a second earlier.

Landing softly on the cobblestone street, Zidane glanced up quickly to ascertain if anyone had observed him. Discovering that it appeared he had escaped the palace undetected, he turned and began walking down the street to the boat-taxi pier.

Quickly reaching his destination, Zidane requested transportation to the main part of Alexandria. This being the third time that Zidane had slipped out of the palace late at night, Lady Beatrix's soldiers were used to him doing so, but he realized they still looked at him with askance. Zidane recognized they could never refuse him, because he was the Royal Prince, but he was also certain that there was presently rumors beginning to spread about his nocturnal activities.

Obtaining the other shore, Zidane stepped out of the boat gracefully, thanked the soldier for the ride and set off for the more humble side of the city. It was only there that he began to feel some of his old self return, when he rubbed shoulders with the more mundane citizens of Alexandria. Even in the middle of the night, the environment buzzed with some activity and excitement. Some of the taverns remained open all night long and he could seek company that made him feel more alive than any other place that he knew - certainly more alive than he felt at any time spent in the palace.

As Zidane strolled down the street towards his favorite tavern, he realized the time had arrived he had been most dreading - the time when he was going to have to leave Garnet. He loved her more than anybody could love a person, but it wasn't enough anymore. He needed something in return. In fact, he needed anything in return and Zidane realized he was receiving nothing. As Zidane prepared to enter the tavern, the sudden realization that Garnet no longer truly loved him caused him to veer away from the doors and down the street, because he began to sob uncontrollably.

* * *

Garnet awoke suddenly in terror from a nightmare. She had dreamt of the time Bahamut destroyed her beloved city of Alexandria. It had all seemed so terrifying real. Garnet still felt horribly guilty for her part in the disaster by combining with Eiko to call Alexander and no one could tell her any different, although many people had attempted to absolve her of blame. She supposed that was the reason for the recurring nightmare.

She sat up in bed, drenched in perspiration and swung her feet to the floor. She reached over to the nightstand and, using a wooden match, lit a small candle she left there for emergencies such as this. She swung her head around to make certain the small light didn't disturb Zidane's slumber when she observed in great shock that Zidane wasn't there!

Panicked because of the close proximity of this strange event following the heels of her nightmare, Garnet jumped from the bed and padded to the door and flung it open. Observing one of Lady Beatrix's beauteous soldiers standing watch at her door, Garnet demanded, "Have you seen my husband, the Royal Prince?"

The female soldier was amazed to see the ordinarily chaste Queen questioning her while standing with her body completely visible beneath her extremely diaphanous gown, but managed to maintain her composure and replied, "No, your Majesty."

"Are you certain you're not covering for him?" Garnet accused, knowing full well that Zidane spent time in the evenings conversing with the soldiers that stood watch over their door.

"No, your Majesty," the flustered guard responded, attempting to avert her eyes from the underdressed Queen.

"You're not certain?" Garnet asked, vaguely confused now.

"Of what?" the soldier asked, now also confused with the direction the conversation was taking.

Garnet stamped her bare foot in frustration. "You said you weren't certain that you weren't covering for him."

Noticing the guard was staring at the floor, Garnet commanded, "And look at me when I'm talking to you."

The female soldier looked up in slight embarrassment at the winsome figure of the Queen that was readily seen beneath her gown.

Suddenly Garnet realized she had forgotten to throw on a robe over her basically transparent nightgown and turning crimson with embarrassment, she began to back into her bedroom. "Well, if you see the Royal Prince, tell him I need to see him right away!" Garnet directed, while closing the bedroom door.

_ I know that's right," _ the soldier thought to herself.

On the other side of the door, Garnet cringed in embarrassment knowing full well this would be reported all around the palace by tomorrow morning.

The door suddenly rattled with thunderous knocks. "Your Majesty, is anything the matter?" questioned Steiner.

_ Oh, good grief! _ thought Garnet. _ What now? _

As the Queen was too slow in responding in his opinion, Steiner burst into the bedroom and, espying some of the Queen's nude form beneath her nightgown, immediately halted, his mouth agape. There was a question of who was blushing the deeper - Garnet or Steiner - when Lady Beatrix stepped into the room closing the door behind her to close off the view of the guard in the hall.

"Adelbert!" she spoke sternly. "Leave the Queen's quarters at once!"

Steiner quickly scurried from the room.

Beatix kneeled on one knee. "Please forgive me your Majesty for coming into your room uninvited. Is there some way I can be of service to you?"

"Yes," Garnet said in a voice as haughtily as she could manage, considering what she was wearing.

"You can turn your head, while I cover myself."

"Yes, your Majesty," Beatrix replied, while complying as ordered. Garnet quickly crossed the room, pulled a robe from her closet and wrapped it around herself.

Garnet commanded, "You may rise, Lady Breatrix."

Beatrix realized from Garnet using the designation _ Lady _ that she had been forgiven for her indiscretion. Beatrix stood up and looked at the Queen.

"What is troubling you, your Majesty?" inquired Beatrix.

"Look," Garnet directed, sweeping her left arm toward the empty bed. "Zidane is missing. What does it mean, Beatrix?"

Beatrix responded, "I'm sure it only means that the Royal Prince has stepped out for a breath of fresh air, m'lady."

"Oh, if it were only so," Garnet sighed. "Zidane has been so distant lately and I have been so busy. I'm afraid he has found a more supple woman to dally with!"

"Your Majesty!" Beatrix protested. "The Royal Prince would never betray you! I am certain of it."

"If only I could be so sure," murmured Garnet.

"If your Majesty permits it," Beatrix suggested, "I could question him myself on the morrow."

"General Beatrix!" Garnet responded sternly. "You forget your place! I am fully capable of talking to my husband myself. You may be excused."

Beatrix kneeled once more and turned and left the room, leaving Garnet behind and immediately feeling guilty that she had spoken in such a manner to Beatrix.

_ She didn't deserve that, _ Garnet thought. _ She was only trying to help._

Garnet reached the decision to wait up for Zidane and, as a diversion from sleep, she chose one of her favorite books to read while she waited. But when the morning sun reached its zenith and flooded the bedroom awaking Garnet, she observed with a sinking in her heart that Zidane had returned while she slumbered and now had already left for the day.

* * *

Garnet's day as the head of Alexandria's parliament seemed to drag even slower than usual, as she only half listened to the mindless arguing between the representatives of the middle class burghers and the representatives of the less fortunate members of Alexandria. She was only concerned about Zidane.

_ Where had he gone? _ Garnet wondered. _ What was he doing away from my bed in the middle of the night? What did it mean? _ Garnet couldn't begin to fathom any other reason for his absence other than another woman. Anytime she even began to consider that she had lost Zidane through her continued absence from their marriage bed, fear would clutch her heart and threaten to tear it in twain. It was all she could to do to keep tears from her eyes, as she presided over hour after hour of mindless arguments over the tiniest esoteric points of the bureaucracy.

Finally the session was called for the day and Garnet hurriedly rushed through the back door of the chamber, without waiting for all the politicians to exit as was her usual custom. Constantly berating her carriage driver to go ever faster, the royal coach careened dangerously through the streets of Alexandria until at last it arrived in front of the palace.

Jumping out of the carriage, rather than waiting for the footman present to open the carriage door, Garnet, lifting up her long gown rather indecorously high off the ground in order to run faster, practically sprinted into the palace and up to the second floor and into her bedroom.

Garnet quickly glimpsed that Zidane was not present and groaned aloud. Then her glance fell upon a note on her pillow. Snatching it up, she read the following:

_ My dearest love, I loath to pen this missive to thou, but circumstances leave no other options. It is quite obvious to me that I am only a burden to you in your position as Queen. So I will be taking my leave of you; not because I have stopped holding you as the dearest thing to my heart, but quite the opposite. I no longer seem to have a similiar position in yours. Not wishing to cause you any further concern, I will now say fare thee well. Please feel free to divorce me. I will not contest it. You deserve to find a man whom you truly love, Love you forever, Zidane. _

"Oh no!" Garnet screamed as tears began to flow copiously down her anguished features and she fell to her knees, clutching the note in her clenched fists.

* * *

Miles away, Zidane stood at the bar in a tavern in Treno drinking ale and talking with Amarant.

Amarant asked, "So you actually left her?"

As Zidane nodded, Amarant replied harshly, "Then you're a bigger fool than even I thought!"

Zidane complained, "You don't know-."

"No You don't know!" exclaimed Amarant. Continuing in a softer tone, Amarant said, "You don't know just what you have thrown away...the peerless love of a woman that sweet and gentle. Whatever are you thinking?"

When Zidane didn't respond, Amarant glanced at his former comrade-in-arms and was greatly startled to note huge tears running down Zidane's face.

"Okay, that tears it!" Amarant said loudly, while grasping Zidane by the shoulders with his huge hands and beginning to push him out of the tavern. "I'm taking you back to Alexandria right now!"

* * *

As Amarant stepped down from the horse drawn taxi, Zidane had already raced through the palace's front door almost knocking down the footman, who had stepped forward to open the carriage door.

It was long past dawn and the sun beat down on the back of Amarant's neck as he paid the carriage driver with a huge sheath of bills Zidane had stuffed into his hands just before leaping from the still rolling carriage.

_ I can see money's not a problem, at least, for the little fella, _ Amarant thought, while paying the cab driver.

Despite Zidane hiring a private airship with an amount of money that boggled Amarant's mind, it still took them hours to finally arrive at the palace. Zidane traveled up the staircase two and three steps at a time by leaping and burst into his bedroom, hoping to find Garnet hadn't already left for the day.

Once inside the room, Zidane stood too stunned to move. Glancing around the room, he was completely shocked to discover it in shambles. It was as if everything in the room had been turned topsy-turvy!

"What the hell does this mean? Did Garnet do this?" Zidane muttered to himself.

Once the initial shock had worn off, Zidane naturally immediately thought of informing Steiner and Beatrix. He also realized that there should have been a guard posted at their bedroom door.

As Zidane was preparing to leave the room and search for Steiner and Beatrix, he heard a sudden slight noise that sounded as it were some sort of organized tapping. Following the sound around the room, Zidane stepped carefully through the trash that had, at one time, been his and Garnet's possessions, his tail twitching every time he heard the sound.

Realizing that the sound was emanating from Garnet's large walk-in closet, Zidane prepared himself for the worst and then quickly yanked the door open. And was completely startled when one of Lady Beatrix's comely female warriors came tumbling toward him.

Automatically reaching out with his hands to catch the falling guard, Zidane felt something largely circular and rather fleshy, as the beauteous soldier moaned in complaint. It was then Zidane was shocked to notice the young woman's uniform had been completely removed and she had fallen into his hands _ sans apparel!_

Quickly helping the female guard to stand upright and removing his hands, Zidane noted the guard's hands were tied behind her back and there was a gag across her mouth, and she was blushing furiously at her extremely underdressed condition.

_ Whew, I can certainly see why, _ Zidane thought to himself. _ Beatrix certainly knows how to pick 'em!_

Zidane was uncertain as to the best way to go about releasing the young attractive woman, and finally reached behind and untied her hands. When she immediately drew back her right hand into a fist and sent it thundering into Zidane's chin, knocking him to the floor, he thought, _ Whoops! Wrong choice._

The nude female guard quickly removed the gag from her mouth and demanded, "Just what do you think you're doing?"

Before Zidane, still laying on the floor, could frame an adequate response, he heard the voice of Adelbert Steiner repeat the same phrase, but this time it was being asked of the guard. "Just what do you think you're doing, Bernadette? Striking the Royal Prince?!"

The unfortunate soldier called Bernadette then made the entire situation even worse by snapping to attention with her right hand held high by the side of her head. When Steiner finally got a full look at the female guard, he felt as though he was going to pass out and he just stood with his mouth agape until Beatrix entered the room and once again took charge of the situation.

"Private Bernadette, cover yourself immediately! And Steiner! - leave this room at once!" Beatrix commanded.

As Steiner quickly left the room, Private Bernadette discovered a half of torn robe laying on the floor and held it up in front of her denuded comeliness, as Zidane arose from the floor.

"Now Bernadette," Beatrix began, "I demand an immediate explanation."

"Well, when the Royal Prince opened the closet door, I fell foward and he grabbed my-."

"Not that explanation!" Beatrix responded heatedly. "I'm talking about where the Queen is and how you came to be in that closet!"

"Oh." Private Bernadette said weakly.

Bernadette went on to explain in a short concise fashion that apparently several large men had managed to infiltrate the palace and had successfully crept up on her unnoticed, until they threw themselves on her. Completely stripping her in less than an minute, leaving her completely defenseless, they pushed her in front of them as they invaded the sleeping Queen's room. After that, they pushed her in the closet and locked it, after gagging her and binding her hands behind her back. Bernadette said it was obvious they then abducted the Queen.

"It's all my fault!" Zidane cried out. "I should have been here!"

General Beatrix nodded at the young female soldier and commanded, "That will be all, Private Bernadette. As Private Bernadette saluted Beztrix with her right hand, holding the scrap of material in front of her haphazardly with her left hand, Beatrix realized it would be rather mean spirited of her to say the least, to send the young woman back through the city to the barracks with her entire backside hanging out.

As Bernadette turned to leave the room, exposing more then she realized, Beatrix winced and ordered, "Wait!"

As luck would have it, Steiner blundered back into the room right at that instant.

Looking upon the nude figure of Bernadette and what appeared to him as Beatrix standing gazing at her longingly, Steiner roared like a bull in heat, "Beatrix! What is going on here?!"

Beatrix turned her head and offered Steiner her most fearsome face and ordered, "Adelbert, go get her a robe!...now!"

"Yes, dear," Steiner simpered and again exited the room, quickly returning with the robe in question and holding it to Bernadette, while averting his eyes. Steiner bounced off a wall on the way out of the room.

Bernadette slipped the robe quickly on over her lissome figure and left thanking the General for her generosity. Zidane was crawling on his hands and knees through the littered floor. Gazing upon him crawling around in the trash and muttering to himself, Beatrix began to fear for his sanity when suddenly Zidane leapt to his feet holding something clutched in his right hand.

"Yes!" he exclaimed and began to leave the room.

"Zidane! Wait!" Beatrix exclaimed.

Zidane ran through the doorway just as Steiner returned.

"Where's Zidane off to in such a hurry?" asked Steiner.

Beatrix directed, "Follow him, Adelbert. I'm worried for his sanity."

"Yes, my love," Steiner responded and turned and ran through the doorway and down the hall, clanking after Zidane, who was already on the first floor.

Watching as Steiner left, Beatrix spoke aloud, "Just what is going on here?" 


	3. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Three

For the Love of Garnet

Robertdogwood@aol.com

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

Original Plot and characters Copyright Robertdogwood@aol.com

PG-13

Chapter Three

Garnet lay asleep in the darkness, as the group of burly men pushed the naked Private Bernadette, whose hands were tied behind her back and her mouth gagged, into the bedroom closet.

After reading Zidane's note, Garnet had sobbed hysterically for well over an hour. Beatrix had entered the young Queen's bedroom without permission twice in an attempt to sooth the weeping Garnet, but to no avail. Finally Beatrix, fearing for the Queen's physical well being, summoned the court physician who administered a sedative and Garnet fell into an uneasy drugged sleep.

Consequently she never awakened, as the five invaders very systemically destroyed practically everything in the royal bedroom, before simply carrying the slumbering Queen out of the palace and placing her in a waiting coach. Pulling the curtains over the windows, they signaled the driver and he whipped the horses and away they went into the night.

* * *

As Zidane ran down the stairs to the palace front doors he nearly ran smack into Amarant, who had just trudged up in his plodding manner.

Startled, Amarant exclaimed, "Zidane?!"

Running down the front steps Zidane shouted over his left shoulder, "Come on!"

Amarant slowly turned and began trudging back down the steps. "Where's Garnet?" he asked.

"I'll tell you in the carriage. Now come on!" Zidane demanded.

Thankfully the carriage hadn't left yet, Zidane told the carriage driver it was worth an extra thirty pieces of gold if he could reach the airship before it took off. As soon as Amarant pulled himself into the carriage, the driver began whipping the horses and they took off in a dead sprint.

As they literally flew low through the streets of Alexandria, Zidane explained to Amarant what had happened.

"Kidnapped?!" Amarant repeated, in a skeptical voice. "Where were her guards?"

After Zidane described what had happened to Private Bernadette, Amarant grinned ruthessly. "I'd paid money to see that. I had a run-in with her once."

Amarant sat back in his coach seat and speculated, "So, let me guess. You think it's your fault because you weren't there to save her?"

Zidane nodded silently.

"It's so comforting to know that some things never change," Amarant replied. "If you'd been there, they would have killed you in your sleep and still kidnapped Garnet, but you wouldn't be here to search for her."

Although Zidane's expression never changed, a certain light of comprehension entered his eyes and caused Amarant to know he had struck paydirt.

"Oh, by the way, before I forget, take this," Amarant said attempting to return to Zidane the big roll of paper money.

Waving it off, Zidane explained, "Keep it, there's plenty more where they came from."

"Are you certain? There's a small fortune here."

Zidane nodded. "As Royal Prince, I can enter any bank in this country and take money from the Queen's account. They have to honor it. I could bankrupt this country if I wanted to, but money and treasure no longer matter a damn to me."

Amarant said simply, "You've changed, Zidane."

As the carriage rumbled up to the airship, it nearly rolled as the driver had to swerve to avoid hitting it, because the horses were still feeling their full head. As the driver began to finally exhibit some control over the strong steeds, Zidane flipped Amarant a bag of gold coins. "Give the driver a hundred. I've got to commission that airship before the pilot takes off.

Zidane leaped from the still moving carriage and quickly clamored up the ladder to the airship.

Fifteen minutes later, they were in the air. Zidane and Amarant were sitting in the passenger lounge talking.

Amarant wondered, "Where are we going and why? And what's that you have clutched in your hand?"

Zidane held out an ordinary looking door key. "I found this after rooting around in the trash."

Amarant scrunched his face. "You were going through trash looking for that. Why? Is it valuable in some way?"

Zidane answered, "Not trash, but trash on the floor."

Amarant sardonically said, "Ah, yes. I understand now. Not trash, but trash on the floor. What are you talking about, Zidane? And make it snappy before I decide to throttle you."

Zidane went on to explain to Amarant about the condition he discovered the bedroom in.

"Why do you suppose they did that?" Amarant asked.

"They were either looking for something that they didn't find or they were attempting to cover up any clues they might have left behind that could have led to them."

"Why do you think they didn't find what they were looking for?" Armand asked, completely mystified concerning what Zidane was talking about.

"Because," Zidane explained, "the mess didn't stop like it would have if they had found something - it went completely around the room."

Amarant nodded carefully, thinking Zidane had gone completely out of his mind.

Upon Amarant's further questioning, Zidane explained he'd recognized the key as being from the hotel in Lindblum and they were headed there in order to check it out.

Amarant stretched his legs out full length and informed Zidane he was going to sleep and advised Zidane to do the same, as they had both been up all night.

"And I have a feeling," Amarant explained, "that we're gonna need our wits about us the deeper we get into this."

* * *

Back in Alexandria the two most powerful politicians in the parliament sat huddled in the corner of the executive dining room. In what might be surprising to some, neither of these highly influential statesmen were associated with the Lord's party, which represented the richest peers in the country; but in actuality were a small percentage of the voting members of the government.

Outside of the Queen, the two most influential politcal figures in Alexandria were Jesse Helot, who headed the party that represented the less fortunate citizens and Karl Handsome, who was of the Burgher party or the middle class. When Parliament was in session these two men were sworn enemies of each other, but out of session they were often as thick as thieves. It remained to be seen if that turned out to be an apt expression.

Karl Handsome, whose six foot, well figured body, and good looks topped off by a head of wavy brown hair made his surname an apt one, was speaking. "Let me see if I got this right. You're telling me Queen Garnet was kidnapped or at least she's missing and no one knows where she is?"

Jesse Helot, who not unsurprisingly resembled his poorer constituents, but in actuality did everything in his power to enhance his appearance in that direction, answered, "Yes! That's actually what I'm saying. And I believe she was kidnapped, early this morning."

"By who?! And for what purpose?!" exclaimed Karl.

Helot responded, appearing rather crafty looking, "Well, as far as by who." He then looked at Representative Handsome in askance.

"Me?!" he remonstrated. "Why would I do that?"

Oh, come now, don't play me for a fool," Jesse replied. "You would do it in order to seize power."

Karl declared, while stroking his chin thoughtfully with his right hand, "Yes, that could happen. But how would I hold this power? I have no backing right now, no private army."

"I know," Representative Helot agreed. "That's why I don't think you're behind it and I'm not behind it for the same reason. But someone is behind it and we need to discover who before they successfully take over running this country in a dictatorship and we'll be left out in the cold."

Handsome declared, "And if we can't stop it, then we join it in order to insure our place in the new government."

"Now you're thinking," Jesse complimented, while he smiled at his new partner in crime.

* * *

It took Steiner over an hour to locate the carriage that had taken Zidane and Amarant to the air ship. Luckily enough, he had remembered the cab identification number, but then he had to wait until the carriage returned for the day before he could speak with the driver. And then he couldn't get the driver to cooperate with him until he had ponied up some money as an out and out bribe. He just didn't understand anymore what the world was coming to and he wasn't a rich man either. Didn't other people understand that?

After he had paid the carriage driver his 'gratituty,' the man suddenly remembered overhearing Zidane say they were going to Lindblum.

_ Lindblum! _ Steiner thought. _ How am I going to get to Lindblum and how long is that going to take? _

Steiner turned slowly and began to trudge slowly back into the main part of Alexandria.

* * *

Not readily knowing what to do at this point, since there was no such position as vice-queen to take over for the Queen when she was absent, Beatrix sat in the throne room waiting for some of the people she had summoned to arrive. Of course even Beatrix didn't have the audacity to sit on the Queen's throne, but there were other chairs in the room almost as ornate. For once the buxom General wished she lived in a country that had a Prime Minister, but historically none of the Alexandrian monarchs were ever interested in sharing even the slightest portion of their political power.

When a knock came upon the huge doors to the throne room, Beatrix gestured for one of the guards to open it. The guard pulled open the door and conferred for a moment with one of the guards that was out in the hall. She turned back to Beatrix and explained, "General, there appears to be some sort of black mage out here. What do you want us to do with him?"

Beatrix leaped up from her chair. "Send him in, you idiot! It's Vivi."

And sure enough when the door was pulled open enough to allow him to enter, Vivi waddled into the room.

Beatrix exclaimed, "So happy to see you again, Vivi. How are you?"

Vivi adjusted his hat with both hands with the hat ending up exactly where it had been to start with.

"I'm good. I happen to be visiting in Alexandria and I heard about Garnet. Has she been found yet?"

"No," Beatrix admitted. "And the longer she's gone, the more I worry - about the Queen's safety and what's going to happen to our government if we don't find her immediately."

"What about Zidane? Isn't he doing anything about it?"

The beautiful woman replied, "Zidane has run off, nobody knows where and I'm concerned about his sanity."

"Oh no!" the black mage exclaimed, highly upset. Vivi looked upon Zidane, not only as a friend but also, as his personal hero.

"I've sent Adelbert after him, but I haven't heard anything yet from either one of them."

Vivi suggested, "You know, I think Freya and Fratley are in town. Do you want me to go search and if they are, send them here to talk to you?"

"Yes, that would be wonderful, Vivi. Thank you so much," Beatrix gushed, while offering the small black mage a large smile.

Vivi smiled in return, nodded, and reached up with both of his hands and adjusted his hat putting it back where it was in the first place. He waddled through the room and back down the hall.

Beatrix sank back into her chair. _ Maybe things are starting to look up, _ she thought.

* * *

Garnet woke up suddenly with a start of fear. Sitting up quickly, she glanced around the room and didn't recognize one thing as belonging to her and Zidane.

_ Where am I? _ she thought, thoroughly confused.

It didn't help that Garnet didn't remember falling asleep in the first place. She also didn't remember the doctor coming and giving her a sedative. She did, however, remember every word of Zidane's letter and wondered where it was. She also didn't remember putting this nightgown on, but did recognize it as one of her own.

The beautiful young woman arose from the bed and moved across the room to the door. _ Locked? Well, no surprise there. _ The young Queen had quickly assimilated the idea that she had been kidnapped by somebody. Despite that many young women her age would have panicked by this time, Garnet was able to remain calm. She had been in worse situations than this and come out okay.

Glancing around the room, she noticed that it would be hardly be called a cell or viewed as something punitive. Moving toward the two front windows that were framed by beautiful lace curtains, she observed there were bars to prevent her from escaping through them and outside shutters that were presently closed to prevent her from discovering where she was. There was very attractive flower patterned wall paper on the walls and two attractive looking comfortable easy chairs, beside a writing table which held paper to write on and feather pens to write with. She'd have to remember those pens, which could be used as a possible weapon at some point.

Moving to the walk-in closet, she threw the door open and discovered there was absolutely nothing in it. Opening the bureauy drawers provided an identical result. Garnet sat in one of the easy chairs and attempted to think who was enough of an enemy to have her abducted or who would prosper enought with her absent to make it worthwhile to risk having her kidnapped. The young Queen was unable to readily think of anybody who fit this criteria.

Garnet realized her only hope would lay in her effecting her own escape. Looking around the room again, she realized her only physical tools were the lace curtains and her bed linens. _ Maybe there's some part of the bed that I can use, _ the dark-haired young woman thought.

She arose to her feet from the chair and quickly stripped the bed totally of its linen. Garnet ended up with a pillowcase, a bed spread, a blanket, top sheet, and a bottom sheet laying in a pile on the floor.

_ Not much in a way of help, _ the dark-haired young woman thought disappointedly.

Dragging the top mattress completely off the box springs was quite a chore for the young Queen whose list of duties did not include physical labor, but it was nothing when compared with how difficult it was for her to get the box spring off the bed frame and onto its side.

When she had finally completed the initial task, she was literally gasping for breath, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst thing to the fastidious Garnet was her perspiration was pouring off her in what seemed to be buckets. And not only that, but moving the mattress and box spring around had caused extremely minute particles of dust and dirt to fly around the room and a good deal had stuck to the young Queen. As the final straw, someone had dressed the lovely young woman in her flannel nightgown so she would never have the opportunity of cooling down wearing that heavy piece of apparel.

All of this led Garnet to make a decision against her better judgment, which was to momentarily remove her flannel night gown until she could cool off a little and get some of the dust and dirt wiped off also.

The beautiful young woman bent over and grasped the bottom of her floor length flannel night gown and pulled it all the way up her body and over her head. She padded totally nude across the room and very carefully lay the nightgown fanned out so it could dry quicker across one of the easy chairs. Garnet then returned to the pile of bed linen that lay on the floor and picked up the pillow case.

The long haired beauty then proceeded to wipe all the perspiration, dust and dirt off her body and then threw the pillow case back on the floor. The young Queen then made a close inspection of the bed frame itself and finally decided to attempt to completely loosen one of the large springs in hopes of being able to use it as a weapon.

It took her most of fifteen minutes, but she was relentless in her goal and the young woman was finally able to wrest the desired spring from the bottom of the bed frame. It was a fairly large corkscrew spring with what appeared as a very sharp end and might make an effective weapon if used in the right way. She then went over to the windows and took the lace curtains down. Garnet reached up and brought down the curtain rod and hefted it by taking a couple of healthy swings with it. _ This might do, _ the young beauty thought to herself.

Feeling a little chilly now and having wiped all the dust and dirt off her body, Garent had just decided that she needed to don her only piece of attire when she heard a sound that sent her adrenaline rushing madly through her body. Someone had just put a key in the lock of the door and was pushing it open! 


	4. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Four

For the Love of Garnet

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

Original Plot and characters Copyright Robertdogwood

Chapter Four

Cid turned to his most trusted adviser, Artania, and inquired, "Does anybody have any knowledge of where Princess Garnet has disappeared to?"

"Not that I've heard," the minister quickly answered.

"Hmm, so nobody has any suspicions?" further questioned Cid.

"Not that I've been made aware of, your Majesty."

After Cid had remained in a thoughtful silence, Artania asked, "Do you want me to have Baku summoned?" Baku, of course, was the leader of the bandit gang, that was also an acting troupe known as Tantalus. This was the group that Zadane had formerly belonged to.

"Yes, why don't you?" Cid agreed.

The minister bowed and turned to leave the King's throne room. As Artania left, Cid mused, _ Who could possibly want Garnet out of the way and where is Zidane when all of this is happening?" _

* * *

Zidane was currently in an airship that was hovering over Lindblum in preparation of landing, as Cid stood below wondering about him. Zidane stood up, stretched and yawned. "Man," he complained, "It took us long enought to get here."

"What's our first move?" his redheaded comrade asked.

"Go ask about this room key, and see if they remember anything about the last occupant. Maybe we'll be able to get in and see the room. Then I thought we'd go over to the hideout and see if the gang knows anything. If all else fails, we'll go see Cid. He may have heard something."

"That's fine, Zidane," Amarant agreed. "But just keep me away from that damn Eiko. You know kids just drive me right up the wall."

Zidane just smiled silently to himself.

* * *

Minister Artania stepped lively into the corridor and walked directly into Lady Hildagarde and he tumbled to the floor. From his prone position on the floor, he attempted to foolishly bow, while declaring, "A thousand pardons, m'lady. Are you injured?"

Lady Hildagarde stared down at him with disdain. "Where is Cid?" she demanded.

"He's in the throne man, m'lady," the minister quickly answered, while pulling himself up from the floor.

"What is going on here?" Lady Hildegarde asked in an angry tone. "I know something's wrong."

Artania flushed heavily. "I suggest you ask Cid. I really-."

"Bah!" the woman interrupted, and then she swept by him into the throne room.

The minister wiped his brow at his close escape and then he quickly continued on his way.

* * *

Steiner was standing in a long line in the office of the Royal Financial Exchequer's office. It was very warm indoors and he was sweating profusely in his armor. He was waiting to see someone of enough importance in order to gain the funds needed to follow the Royal Prince to Lindblum. He had been there already for over an hour and he was beginning to feel highly impatient to be on his way.

Finally the clerk at the counter called to him, "Next, please."

Steiner hurried toward the counter as quickly as his heavy armor would allow, clanking all the way.

"I need to obtain the funds to travel to Lindblum on the Queen's business," explained the loyal Alexandrian soldier.

"Do you have a requisition form signed by the Queen?" the clerk asked in a rather snotty fashion.

Steiner flushed in frustration, but held his tongue. He had already learned previously that not keeping his temper with these minor flunkies was a losing proposition.

"Why no, I don't," he attempted to explain. "The Queen is missing. That's why I have to go to Lindblum."

"Well," the clerk said, already looking beyond Steiner to the next person in line, "if you don't have the form signed by the Queen, I am unable to give you any money. Next," the officious little man called out to the person standing in line behind Steiner.

As the person attempted to brush by Steiner, he blocked their path and asked, "But how can I get the Queen to sign the form when she's missing, which is the very reason I need to go to Lindblum - to locate the missing Queen."

"That's not my problem," the clerk replied. "I don't make the rules, I just enforce them. I said next!"

At long last losing control of his temper, Steiner reached out and grasped the clerk up by his shirt. "You listen to me! You give me that money right now!"

"If you don't release me immediately, I will have you imprisoned," the clerk sputtered.

"By whose orders?" the angry soldier questioned.

"By the orders of the Queen," the little man angrily explained.

"Where is the Queen?" Steiner demanded.

"Why I heard she was missing," the clerk intoned.

"Then you can't have me imprisoned until I find her," the soldier declared.

"What?" the clerk asked, becoming very confused at the recent turn in the conversation.

"You can not have me imprisoned without the Queen being here to give the order. If you want me imprisoned, you have to give me the money to go to Lindblum to follow the Royal Prince in order to locate the now missing Queen," Steiner intoned slowly for the benefit of the now totally befuddled clerk.

The smallish, now totally confused, man just shook his head, as if to clear out the cobwebs. "Ok, ok," he surrendered. "I give up, I don't even know what you just said. Fill out this form and go downstairs to the clerk to get the money."

Steiner loosened his hold on the clerk, took the form from him, turned and walked away smiling to himself, realizing that at least now he didn't have to return to Beatrix with his task undone. Steiner would rather be imprisoned for a thousand days and nights than disappoint his beautiful wife.

* * *

The representative from the Alexandria Parliament strode angrily into the ante room of the outer office past the many penitents, who were waiting to speak with the politician considering their personal requests and private woes. As several of them stood up to approach the representative, the politician's receptionist silently shook her head at them indicating to them they should wait. She could already spot all the signs of a major blowup coming.

The representative continued through the room and literally crashed into the next office and slammed the door behind. The representative's personal assistant awaited by the large desk befitting the politician's importance.

"What the hell is going on?" the representative angrily demanded of the man standing there. The obviously frustrated politician went and sat in the chair behind the desk.

The representative's personal assistant was a political battle weary, middle-aged man, a long survivor of many political disasters, and he asked, "What do you mean?" The man obviously hoped to avoid the entire uncomfortable situation by claiming ignorance.

The politician glanced shrewdly at his assistant. "Come on, knock it off. You know damn well I'm speaking of Queen Garnet's disappearance."

The middle-aged man flushed, but spoke in an even tone when he admitted, "I don't know. I haven't heard a thing about it."

The parliamentarian stood up quickly. "Then go find out!" The middle-aged man bowed slightly and fled the office, relieved to have gotten off that easily.

* * *

Beatrix felt extremely grateful when Freya and Sir Fratley entered the Royal Throne Room. After welcoming them and bidding them sit, the beautiful warrior learned they had been preparing to leave Alexandria and return to their beloved Burmecia, when Vivi located them and apprised them of the crisis situation. They naturally agreed to come straight to the palace.

After welcoming them warmly, Beatrix wondered, "How goes the rebuilding of your home?"

Freya had a gentle smile while glancing at Sir Fratley, who answered in his usual florid manner. "It goes quite well, Lady Breatrix. We are almost surely completed. But what's this about the Queen?" In actuality Fratley hated small talk and preferred to go straight to the crux of the matter.

Beatrix understood this and in fact agreed with him; particularly in this situation. "She is missing and we have every reason to believe she was kidnapped."

"Where's Zidane?" Freya naturally asked.

"The Royal Prince," Beatrix carefully intoned, "has run off somewhere, God knows where. Adelbert is attempting to follow him."

Freya smiled to herself. She realized she had just been put in her place by Beatrix for calling him Zidane, but to her he would always just be her friend Zidane. After all, she had known him a heck of a lot longer than Beatrix had.

"Do we have any ideas at all where they might have taken her?" asked Freya.

Beatrix shook her head sadly. "No, but the troops have done a fairly thorough search in Alexandria.

Freya glanced at Sir Fratley, who nodded at her. Looking back at the beautiful soldier, Freya explained, "Fratley and I will go to Treno and then Lindblum if we learn nothing in Treno.

"Thank you so much," expressed Beatrix.

Sir Fratley stood up and then gallantly helped Freya to regain her feet. "We will be in touch," he spoke, "when there is something to report. Come, Freya," Fratley directed, leaving the throne room by her side. As soon as the doors closed behind them, Beatrix say back in the ornate chair and breathed a sigh of relief. _ At long last, _ she thought, _ things might be looking up a little." _

* * *

By the time the bedroom door had been pushed open enough to allow the young man and woman entrance, the young Queen was no longer visible in the room. The man was rather short, although he appeared to own a promising physique beneath his common work clothes. He had pleasant enough features, with dark hair and green eyes. The woman was far taller than he and had a perfect hourglass figure. She was dressed in much better finery and was quite beautiful with curly blonde hair that hung past her shoulders, blue flashing eyes and gorgeous facial features.

Quickly noticing the room appeared empty, she exclaimed, "Crikey! The Queen's escaped. They'll have our heads for this."

"Calm down," the man suggested simply. "How could she escape? The windows are nailed shut, we're too high above the ground anyway. She would surely fracture a leg or worse. And she surely hasn't gotten through the heavy door."

"That's true!" the beautiful woman agreed. "Then where is she?" the young blonde asked thoughtfully.

They both gazed at the walk-in closet door simultaneously and moved to it very silently. Just before pulling the door open, the man cautioned the woman to remain silent by placing his forefinger against his lips in the almost universal signal of shhh! The blonde woman nodded and the man ripped the door open.

Inside the closet, the Queen stood ready for such an eventuality and as she had undeniably heard both a man and a woman, she had very wisely decided to seek out the woman if and when the door opened. As soon as the door opened, Garnet glanced wildly between the young man and woman, and lowering her left shoulder she charged into the woman with every bit of strength she possessed. Garnet may have appeared short and slight of stature, but she had a sinewy strength that was well hidden until she had need of it and this was one of those times. In other words, she knocked that woman 'ass over tea kettle,' and even stepped right on her without tripping on her way through the room and then out the door that the two keepers had thoughtlessly left open in their surprise at not initially observing the Queen upon entering the room.

The man automatically reached down to help his woman companion to her feet, when she exclaimed in a harsh tone, "Crikey! Not me! Go get her before she wanders too far away. They'll have our heads for this," she repeated for the second time since entering the room.

The young man followed the blonde woman's intelligent advice, but upon reaching the hallway he observed the young Queen had vanished. 


	5. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Five

For the Love of Garnet

By Robertdogwood@aol.com

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

Original Plot and Characters Copyright Robertdogwood 2002

Chapter Five

Adelbert Steiner was presently waiting, at the just recently built Alexandrian airship port, in an extremely long line to board air transport to Lindblum. This was the third in a series of long lines that he had stood in, beginning with the representative of the Royal Treasury he had been directed to from the Royal Exchequer's office. After that long wait, and then walking through most of Alexandria to reach the airship port, the brave husband of the gorgeous Beatrix had to stand in another long line in order to purchase his ticket to Lindblum.

Adelbert was hot and tired and wanted nothing more from life right at that moment then to be allowed to sit down. _ This certainly has turned into one giant pain in the a-. _ "No," the gallant soldier spoke aloud to himself, attracting a few strange looks. Steiner paid no attention, being used to being stared at just on general principles. _ It is my duty to find the Queen, no matter what hardships I need to live with, _ he sternly told himself.

After approximately another thirty minutes, Steiner reached the front and had his ticket validated and was assigned a seat on the airship. He noticed that there were only a few more seats noted as available on the diagram and wondered idly what was going to happen to all the people still waiting in line behind him. The loyal soldier was disappointed that they didn't even ask him if he wanted a window seat. He loved being able to sit by the window. Everything on the ground looked so clean and beautiful to him from high in the air.

After being directed to another line to wait in before boarding the airship, Adelbert sighed heavily, but uttered not one word of complaint. Complaining was not in his emotional makeup. To do his duty or die trying was all Steiner used to live for; lately his love for Beatrix had added an addendum to that to include taking care of her and all the ramifications of such.

Finally the line began to move forward slowly and a few minutes later, he was finally actually able to enter the airship. Adelbert waited for the slowly moving line to clear the way for him to reach his assigned seat. His ill fortune continued, as Steiner discovered he didn't have a window seat as he suspected. Being a man of large proportions, he found himself certainly feeling crowded in the small seats on this particular airship and he found himself hoping they would get underway quickly and travel to Lindblum in record time.

Steiner was dismayed to observe that his prediction, that there were more people than seats available, had come true, as the aisle was filled with people just standing. Obviously they had overbooked thinking that the estimated ten percent of the tickets would be cancelled. He was so tired he wanted nothing more then to go to sleep, but as soon as the gallant Steiner saw the poor old lady standing beside the row he was seated in, he realized that this was a pipe dream. She was standing all hunched over, as if the pain from her feet were killing her, and she was particularly overburdened with many packages.

Adelbert stood and indicated to the woman that she should seat herself.

"Oh I couldn't," she croaked.

Steiner slightly bowed and moved his right hand toward the seat. "I insist," he reaffirmed.

"Thank you so much," the much older woman gushed. "At least there is still some gentleness and gallantry left in our world." And she sat in the passenger seat that Steiner had recently occupied.

Adelbert smiled at her in his response and then turned and stood stoically ignoring his ever increasing fatigue.

* * *

Hildagarde strode angrily into the throne room without knocking, catching Cid by surprise and off guard.

"What is going on, Cid?" the beautiful middle-aged woman demanded.

"Well, my dear," Cid began, "what a delightful surprise to see you."

"Don't give me that," Hildagarde responded. "Answer my question."

"Whatever are you referring to?" his majesty equivocated, while stroking his huge handlebar mustache.

"Cid," she declared sternly, looking him directly in the eye. "Don't toy with me or do you want to experience the joys of being a oglop again?"

Cid flushed bright red at the thought and subconsciously ducked somewhat before answering, "Alright, my dear," he acquiesced, "Garnet is missing."

"Missing?!" his beautiful wife echoed. "Whatever are you talking about? How could she be missing?"

Cid flushed again, glanced away, and finally returning his gaze to Hildagarde, he smoothed out his mustache again. "No one knows where she is, HIldagarde. That's what I mean by missing."

Cid's wife stared intently at him. Finally she spoke, "Are you telling me the truth? You don't know anything about this?"

"T - That's correct," he stammered.

"Hmmph," Hildagarde replied. "We'll talk about this later," she promised ominously, while she turned on her heel and left the throne room. As she was departing, she was passed by Baku, who was entering. She heard Cid call out a greeting to him, as the heavy, ornate door was closed by the two soldiers standing guard at the throne room entrance.

_ Hmmm, _ she wondered thoughtfully, while moving down the corridor. _ What is he doing here? What is that all about? _

* * *

The much smaller and speedier airship that Zidane had chartered was finally given permission to put down inside of Lindblum at one of the many airship docks. It wasn't a moment too soon, as far as Zidane was concerned. He was extremely worried that every minute that passed would make it that much more difficult to locate Garnet. Although his outer demeanor looked quite normal, almost casual; inside he was a raging caldron of almost out of control emotions, beginning with his utmost fear of what might have already happened to his wild sweet lover and ending with his overwhelming sense of guilt. Despite what Amarant had told him, Zidane still felt as though he were entirely responsible for this whole thing and thought if he had been there, none of this would have occurred and he didn't care what Amarant or anybody else thought about it. In a sense, Zidane was correct. The kidnappers had obviously waited for his absence, before they struck, but in the long run it would have happened anyway. Certainly at some point in the future, Zidane would have had a legitimate reason to be absent from his bed with the Queen and the same result would have been accomplished. _ That _ is what Zidane didn't or wouldn't understand.

Waiting until the airship had docked completely and the steward opened the door, Zidane followed by Amarant exited and then walked down the ramp into Lindblum. There were many airship docks in Lindblum. Unlike the time Zidane had landed here with the then Princess Garnet, they were nowhere near the Royal Palace; although they were very close to the business district, which was where the inn in question was located.

Taking ground transportation to the business district, they walked up the stairs into one of the main parts of the huge metropolis of Lindblum. Crossing the street quickly to avoid all of the traffic, Zidane was followed by Amarant trudging behind him. Hurrying into the Inn ahead of his redheaded cohort, Zidane strode up to the check-in counter.

The clerk glanced up. "Yes, may I help you?" he inquired politely.

As if in answer, Zidane held out the room key in his right hand, the only sure sign of his agitated state being his swishing tail, which was moving quite rapidly in all directions. Peering closely at it, the clerk exclaimed, "That's 218! That's been missing. Wherever did you find it?" He automatically held his hand out to take back the Inn's property.

"It was discovered at the scene of a crime," explained Zidane.

The clerk blanched and pulled his hand back, as if he had touched something hot. "A crime!" he exclaimed. "Surely you don't think we had anything to do with it?"

"No, of course not," the Royal Prince placated, "but we would like to know who had this key and possibly look in their room."

"Oh now, I don't know about that," the clerk equivocated, now that it appeared the danger had passed, because he had been assured the Inn wasn't believed to be responsible for anything criminal. "I believe that is confidential information."

Amarant trudged up behind Zidane, his long arms hanging down near his knees. Glaring directly at the now newly frightened clerk, Amarant asked Zidane in a harsh voice, "What's going on? Is there a problem here I need to remedy?"

Zidane whirled and answered, while gently putting his hands on Amarant's large chest, as if to hold him back, "Now, now. There's no need to be busting this place up and hurtin' anybody. I'm sure this gentleman will cooperate."

The clerk grew even paler, if that was possible. It would have been quite obvious to anyone who knew them that this was an act that Zidane and Amarant had used before to elicit information. It usually worked and this time was no exception. The clerk began to sing, as if he were a canary.

"I believe it was one of Baku's crew," he explained.

"Baku's crew?" echoed Zidane. "Which one?" he demanded.

"Oh, I don't remember that," the clerk whined. "There was a number of them stayed here that night."

"Let me see the register," the Royal Prince ordered.

"Ok," replied the inn employee, "but I doubt that it will help."

"And why's that?" Amarant rumbled.

"Here," the clerk declared, as he opened the registration book to the date in question and swung it around so Zidane and Amarant could inspect it.

"Oh I know who that is," Amarant declared. "I'd recognize that _** X **_ anywhere."

"You do?" Zidane asked with surprise in his tone.

"No," the large redheaded man replied. "It was a joke, you need to get a grip, Zidane."

Totally ignoring the advice of his partner, Zidane returned his attention to the clerk. "Is anyone in that room?" he asked.

"N- No," the timid clerk stammered. "It hasn't been occupied since then. We only had the master key for that room."

"Okay," the Royal Prince decided. "We're gonna go check the room out and when we come back down, I'll give you the key."

"Whatever you want," agreed the clerk just hoping to get the two of them away from him as quickly as possible.

After Zidane and Amarant had left the lobby to wend their way upstairs to the room, the clerk breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

Lady Beatrix sat in the huge chair at the head of Parliament that was usually occupied by the good Queen Garnet. Although Beatrix had no where near the power to preside that the Queen had, she had been reduced to the same helpless position, as she was currently resting her head in her hands. She was the recipient of a massive headache from the nonsense she had constantly heard in the last hour.

_ I don't know how Queen Garnet stands it, if they're often like this, _ thought the bravest warrior, male or female, Alexandria had ever known.

Jesse Helot had leaped to his feet and was calling out, "Point of order! Point of order!"

_ That must be the thirty-fifth time he's said that in the last hour, _ Beatrix thought wearily. She discovered herself to be almost completely fed up with this inappropriate behavior. She watched as Karl Handsome gained his feet and declared, "Madame Chairman, I demand the right to address this august body immediately."

_ Baying jackasses, _ thought the Lady Beatrix, _ That's what they remind me of. _

"No," she answered loudly, while quickly standing up.

"No?!" echoed Representative Handsome. "Did you say no?"

Beatrix nodded. "Yes, I did. I order this session of Parliament to be adjourned."

Jesse Helot jumped to his feet. "You can't do that! You have no power to do that!" he cried, his face flushed bright crimson. "Only the Queen can do that and you're not her." Thirty politicians followed his example and leaped to their feet shouting out their disapproval.

Lady Beatrix again stated. "I order you to disperse and this session of Parliament to be adjourned.

"By what right do you invoke this?" questioned Karl Handsome.

Stepping down away from her position that was set above the others in the chambers, Beatrix drew _ Save The Queen _ from its' sheath and brandished the fabulous sword above her head. "Who's first," the beautiful warrior demanded, her face flushed with adrenaline.

The delegates were scattering out the rear doors, much to Lady Beatrix's satisfaction. On his way from the chamber, Jesse Helot could be heard to threaten, "The Queen will hear of this, mark my word, I promise you."

"I'm sure she will," Beatrix responded. _ I just pray to God she does, _ thought the brave warrior.

* * *

"So you're headed back to Madain Sari?" Vivi reaffirmed with Morrison the Mog.

"Yes," Morrison nodded, his antenna causing the red pompom on the end to bounce madly in the air.

"So you're saying," Montose the Mog interjected, "that the Summoner Garnet is missing?"

"Yes, yes," Vivi replied nervously. The Summoner - I mean, Queen Garnet is missing and no one has any idea where she has gotten."

"That's terrible, terrible," Montose responded. "We should go tell Lady Eiko. Maybe she'll know where she is."

"Wait, Montose, don't go off half-cocked," Morrison cautioned. "We have to take all these supplies home first and then we'll go to Lindblum and find Lady Eiko."

"You're right, right," Montose agreed.

"Excuse me," Vivi interrupted. "Is Lani still residing with you?"

"Why yes," Morrison answered. "Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering if you saw her, if you could explain the situation to her and ask her to come in to Alexandria to help search for the Queen."

"Certainly," Morrison replied. "We would be happy to."

"Thank you so much," expressed Vivi. "I'll be forever in your debt," said Vivi, while lowering his head in a bow.

"Our pleasure," replied Montose, who also ducked his head in a bow. Unfortunately the pompom at the end of his antenna smacked against Vivi's forehead knocking him senseless for a moment.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," apologized Montose.

"Why can't you be more careful?" snapped Morrison.

Vivi straightened up, shook his head as if to shake the cobwebs loose and then adjusted his wide brim hat, first one way and then the other, returning it to the hat's original position.

"Please, no problem," Vivi graciously declared. "And God speed you on your journey."

* * *

Freya and Sir Fratley sat high upon the back of their Golden Chocobos on their journey from Alexandria to Treno. They both held their reins rather tightly as the Chocobos, while they were not all out sprinting, were trotting along at a brisk pace.

"Freya," Sir Fratley asked, "did Lady Beatrix appear under a great deal of strain to you? She seemed rather tense to me."

Freya turned her head and smiled at her long time lover, and replied, "Why yes, Fratley. I believe she was displaying signs of it. Why do you ask?"

"Only, that I have known her a long time and if she is truly that upset, then this surely is a highly serious situation," explained Sir Fratley.

"That's an excellent point," answered Freya. "What do you suggest then?"

Fratley answered, "That, my love, we spur these Chocobos to a much greater speed in order to reach Treno is a shorter period of time." And learning forward, the two of them spurred their mounts to an all out sprint.

* * *

Karl Handsome quickly crossed the crowded working man's café to his early supper companion, Carlin Phelps. Carlin, besides being a beauty of rare distinction, was also one of the few women politicians in Alexandria.

Seating himself across the table from the beautiful woman, he reached out and cupped his hand over hers' and murmured, "Carlin, how wonderful to see you again. You look absolutely delicious."

"Cut the crap, Karl. I'm married and you know it," Carlin replied, while slipping her gorgeous golden tresses back from her face with her right hand.

"Where's the Queen, Karl?" the female politician asked, placing a strong emphasis on his name.

"The Queen? Is that what this meeting is about?" Handsome responded with some surprise in his voice. "I'm sure I don't know."

Carlin suddenly reached across the table and gathered up the man's ruffled silk shirt in her hand and using surprising strength pulled him to her, as if he were some kind of a rag doll. "I don't want to hear what you're sure you don't know. I want to hear how you're going to convince me of that. What the hell happened here, Karl? It was all set up. What went wrong?"

And then the beautiful woman slammed the male politician back into his chair. "Well, I," he began.

* * *

The younger dark-haired man returned to the bedroom from the hallway. "She got away," he muttered.

"Oh crikey, they'll -," the woman began.

"Have our heads for that, I know, I know," the man interrupted. "You've said that enough now."

"What in the world does this mean?" the blonde asked, while picking up Garnet's nightgown.

The young man answered, "Well, um, you know, when she ran out, I." He cleared his throat several times.

"Well, what?" she impatiently demanded.

"I," replied the dark-haired man, "didn't get a good look at her. I don't know," he lied diplomatically.

Garnet, in the meantime, after running down the initial hallway turned right and headed down a corridor towards a stairwell that she hoped would lead her to a lower floor in order to escape the building. Just as the beautiful woman was nearing the stairwell at the end of the corridor, a group of children exited the room next to the stairway and Garnet had to reverse her field and run all the way to the other end of the corridor, where there was another stairway.

When the good Queen reached the other stairwell and pulled the door open and entered it, she was devastated when she discovered the stairway only led to the higher floors. Apparently the stairway at one end of each hallway led up and the stairway at the other end went down. Opening the door from the stairwell back into the corridor, the dark-haired young woman was shocked when she observed the children walking toward her and becoming frightened they were headed toward the stairway, Garnet ran upwards, never seeing the children enter another room along the corridor. 


	6. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Six

For the Love of Garnet

By Robertdogwood@aol.com

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

Original Plot and Characters Copyright Robertdogwood 2002

Chapter Six

Zidane and Amarant walked up two flights of stairs to reach the second floor, since the Inn didn't have an elevator and there were no rooms available at ground level. Exiting the door from the stairwell on what was really the third floor of the building, they walked almost all the way down one narrow wing until arriving in front of room 218.

Zidane inserted the key and threw the door open. As his partner went to step into the room, the blond haired young man threw his arm in front of Amarant impeding his forward progress. "Wait!" he exclaimed.

"What now, Zidane?" the red haired man asked wearily.

"Be very careful where you step and what you touch in here. We don't want to destroy any evidence," he advised.

"Any evidence of what?" Amarant inquired. "Evidence that you have lost your mind?" he continued sarcastically. "You know Zidane, as the time goes on, you're becoming odder and odder."

"Whatever," he muttered unknowingly mimicking another hero of another time. His tail swished nervously in a random pattern.

Following his own advice, Zidane stepped cautiously into the hotel room. He stepped lightly wherever he moved, making certain to not smash anything into the carpet which would forever hide it away from his eyes. Amarant sighed again rather loudly and just shook his head in disbelief as he watched, what to him, was the antics of his co-patriot.

Bent over to the degree that he was almost crawling, Zidane took a sharp right as soon as he stepped through the doorway and began searching along the front wall of the room. When he reached the corner, Zidane went to his left and continued the same procedure until he reached the small chest of drawers.

He continued with his careful investigation in each drawer, even going as far as lifting up the brown paper that lined the inside of the drawers. Except for a well-known religious text, there had been nothing left in the bureau.

While Zidane continued his meticulous search down the same wall to the windows, Amarant sat rather impatiently on the bed watching this study in inspired craziness. _ Maybe it's helping him to feel better, _ he thought with a good degree of insight. _ He probably figures at least he's doing something. _

Zidane reached the windows on the back wall and he thoroughly checked the window sills for anything. "Oh," he said, holding up his somewhat blackened hand. "These need to be cleaned."

"I'll get on that right away," Amarant snickered.

Finishing his inspection of the window sills and along the baseboard underneath, the Royal Prince turned his attention to the small nightstand that stood beside the bed that Amarant was currently sitting on. Zidane discovered a small pad of white paper and a pencil which he checked closely, but he discovered nothing written on the pad.

"Gonna drop me a line?" Zidane's redheaded partner asked sardonically allowing his impatience to be displayed in a passive-aggressive manner.

Ignoring Amarant, Zidane began to rub the side of the pencil point quickly over the first page of the pad until the impression of the message written on the page before displayed itself. He read, _ Will leave today, Baku. _

"Look at this," the blond-haired man pointed out while passing it to his comrade.

Amarant looked at it closely and commented, "Well, since we already know that some of 'Tantalus' was here, this doesn't tell us a great deal more, except now we know that Baku was here and they're involved in something we probably need to look into."

"That's right," Zidane agreed, nodding his head.

Amarant stood up from his position, where he had been sitting on the bed assuming they were finished and groaned aloud when he observed Zidane pick up the small trash can that rested on the floor beneath the nightstand and turned it upside down dumping its' contents onto the floor. He knelt and began to sift through the trash.

Zidane continued to pick through the trash carefully while Amarant sat resignedly back down upon the bed. The blond-haired young man eventually discovered something which seemed to pique his interest. Picking through carefully a pile of papers he held in his left hand, Zidane eventually pulled out several very small pieces of torn paper. Throwing the rest of the trash back into the container he set the pieces on the floor and commenced to attempting to fit the pieces together into a coherent whole.

The Royal Prince finally managed to fit the pieces into a small rectangle. Despite himself, Amarant found himself curious enough about it to arise from his seated position and walk around to where his partner was still crouched. He looked over Zidane's shoulder and observed a 'Tantalus' theatre ticket stub and realized immediately that someone went to a great deal of trouble to attempt to destroy the link back to 'Tantalus.'

_ What the hell is really going on here? _ Amarant couldn't help but wonder.

"Let's go," Zidane ordered.

Following him from the hotel room, his red haired companion asked, "Where to?"

"The hideout, of course."

* * *

The airship rumbled rather ominously as it seemed to list this way and that way, in whichever direction the air currents dictated to it rather than it setting its own course. Steiner stood in the aisle feeling physically rather listless, but super-alert mentally and emotionally because of the precariousness of the airship he was traveling in.

_ I wonder where they found this relic? _ he thought to himself. He realized that so many of the airships that his country used had been rather inexpensive castoffs of Lindblum, but that didn't help his nervousness and apprehension right at that moment.

The thing that always saved Steiner was his sense of duty and responsibility, and the manner in which it related to fatalism. He believed that if he was doing what he was absolutely supposed to be doing then what will be should be, but Steiner realized that still didn't keep him from wanting to reach Lindblum as quickly as possible.

Steiner resettled his weight in his standing position in order to shift some of the pain he was experiencing in his feet, because he realized with resignation that he had, at least, another hour journey before they would reach Lindblum.

* * *

After flying a Chocobo to the town of Conde Petie, Morrison and Montose, the two Mogs which Vivi had spoken with in Alexandria, began their walk along the mountain path.

"I wish you would be more careful," Morrison continued berating Montose for his behavior while in Alexandria. "You do realize that you represent all Mogs unfortunately while we're out in public, don't you?"

"Yes, yes, I do," Montose answered humbly. "And I've already told you I'm sorry, I don't know what else I can say."

"Well," Morrison suggested snidely, "maybe the next time I go out to get supplies, I will take someone who knows what to do."

"Well, maybe you should!" Montose responded in a rare display of anger.

Morrison stood shocked staring at his traveling companion, never having heard Montose speak in such a fashion. Before he could respond, he heard Montose exclaim, "Hi Lani! How are you?"

Morrison glanced away from Montose and directly into the sparkling, lively eyes of the redheaded attractive female mercenary, who always dressed in such colorful outfits.

"I'm good, what's up, guys?" Lani realized that the Mogs didn't usually travel this dangerous mountain path unless they had recruited her as their bodyguard, so she correctly assumed that they had come this way looking for her.

Morrison replied, "We have some rather shocking news to recount. We bring a message from General Beatrix for you. Apparently misfortune has befallen the good Queen Garnet and she is missing."

"Yes, yes," Montose interrupted, "Lady Beatrix would like you to come to Alexandria immediately if it please you."

Morrison shot a glance of reprimand at Montose for interrupting, but was unable to say anything as Lani exclaimed, "Of course, I'll leave right away. As soon as I can pack my carpet bag, but what are you two going to do?"

"As soon as we drop these supplies off at Madain Sari, we're going to visit Lady Eiko at Lindblum," answered Morrison.

"Ok, maybe I'll see you there later," Lani replied and she turned and disappeared into the small cave she called her home away from home. Morrison and Montose waddled on their way toward Madain Sari.

* * *

After pulling into Treno, the city of perpetual darkness, Freya and Sir Fratley boarded their Chocobos at a stable and then agreed to split up and each search in a different direction. They would later meet at the Treno Inn.

Walking down through the more affluent part of the city, Freya couldn't help but notice Doctor Tot's old residence. Remembering suddenly that she had heard something about his returning to his former home after Queen Garnet had seemed settled in her reign over Alexandria, she made a mental note to suggest to Fratley that they pay the good doctor a visit before moving on from Treno.

Freya stopped at the outdoor Café Carta, bought a café latte and carried it to one of the empty tables. Seating herself, she proceeded to sip her hot drink while eavesdropping on the most affluent citizens of Treno - the rich, pompous nobles. They first continued their perennial complaining of the cost of everything and then after finishing their grievances, the men and women nobility began discussing the disappearance of Queen Garnet.

Freya finally finished her beverage and left the café after realizing the only thing they were discussing was how this was going to affect the quality of their own lives. Shaking her head slightly at the callousness and shortsightedness of the Treno nobles, Freya walked up the stairs and across the passageway to the Synthesis Shop. She had hoped to learn anything of the Queen's disappearance or where Zidane might be, but the shop clerk had heard nothing and he was usually a most reliable source of information since people from all over the world would come to his shop while visiting Treno.

Next Freya decided to try the Weapons and Armour shop and after learning nothing of consequence from the woman who owned the shop, Freya stopped to chat with Mogrich the Moggle. Upon questioning her if she had heard anything of consequence concerning Queen Garnet's disappearance, Mogrich admitted, "I have heard this much. The last time Stiltzkin traveled through, he stopped by and we were talking about Alexandria because he had just left there and he told me he had heard there was a plot by some politicians to kidnap the Queen and take over running the country."

Freya excitedly questioned the Moggle further, but learned nothing else of consequence. Unfortunately Stiltzkin had heard nothing other than that. Freya finally thanked Mogrich for the information and set off for the Inn, eager now to meet with Sir Fratley and share what she had learned.

* * *

Vivi was allowed to pass through the front doors of the Queen's Palace once more on his way to report to Lady Beatrix. As Vivi toddled into the large first floor anteroom through which several important places on that floor could be reached, the small Black Mage heard the unmistakable fractured spoken language of none other than Quina. Quickly stepping through the very large dining room and into the huge kitchen, Vivi observed Quina in the very familiar position of slightly bending over a large kettle of stew tasting it from a ladle she was holding. Unlike others of their former comrades who thought Quina's true sexuality to be a closely guarded secret, Viva realized that Quina was a she. He had married her after all, but that's a story for another time.

Quina looked just the same to Vivi, as if she hadn't aged a day. The Black Mage saw a creature who appeared to resemble several different creatures combined into one. That was another question among her former comrades; what exactly was Quina? First of all, she was very large, some people would be mean and say fat, but it was really impossible to tell since she wore so many clothes. Quina also appeared to have white feathers, but since only her face was clearly visible it was truly impossible to tell if the rest of her body was covered with same. Her orange bill was extremely long, even longer than a duckbilled platypus hanging almost halfway down her body as she stood on two feet. And her arms - wings - upper trunk appendages, whichever they were, hung almost down to where her knees would be, if she had them.

Stepping up to Quina, Vivi greeted, "Hi Quina, how are you?"

Turning quickly being startled, Quina waved her top appendages wildly as was usually her wont when excited and knocked Vivi sideways and almost completely off his feet. "Oh, I sorry, Vivi," Quina expressed offering a wing or whatever for him to hold on to maintain his balance.

Finally managing to maintain his center of gravity, Vivi muttered his thanks to Quina and then straightened his hat first to the left and then to the right finally returning it to the exact position it had been in a moment before. "Are you ok?" Quina inquired appearing solicitous as always.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks. Why are you here, Quina?" he asked.

"I here because the Palace Chef was called away to hometown. No one knows what for," the temporary chef answered. "Why you here?" Quina naturally wanted to know in turn. Vivi went on to explain as best as he could in simple terms to Quina what had occurred with the Queen. He realized how excitable she could become and he wanted to downplay the situation as much as possible.

Vivi realized he hadn't been quite successful as his old friend began spinning her arms or wings or whatever and lamenting, "Oh, this is terrible! This is terrible! I will go with you."

"Go with me?" the Black Mage echoed. "You don't even know where I'm going."

"Doesn't matter, I trust you," Quina explained. "You good, we find Queen."

Vivi felt himself blushing to receive such praise, but realized no one would ever know except him when he flushed. "Ok," he agreed. "Lets' go, I'm going to see Lady Beatrix to discover what she desires us to do."

"But first," the new Palace Chef offered out the ladle, "you want a taste of oglop stew?"

Vivi attempted to keep his shudder hidden, because he realized it might hurt Quina's feelings. "No, I think I'll pass for right now. I just had lunch a little while ago," he lied.

"Then come," Quina declared laying the ladle down by the knife. "We go visit Beatrix."

* * *

Beatrix sat in one of the lesser chairs in the Throne Room. She had her feet drawn up underneath her as though she was attempting to roll herself up into a little ball. _ What is to become of Alexandria? _ Beatrix thought, mentally wringing her hands. _ I know that I can't do this by myself, but what else is there to do? Certainly the leaders in Parliament haven't been any help. If anything, they're blocking anybody helping me. What a minute! It's mainly Helot and Handsome blocking things. There must be somebody who I can implore for some assistance. Wait, what about -. _

Beatrix's thoughts were interrupted by Viva along with Quina being allowed to enter the Throne Room. Beatrix smiled at seeing the young 'married' couple together again. It was the first good feeling she had experienced since Queen Garnet had disappeared.

"Welcome back, Vivi," Beatrix welcomed. "And how are you, Quina?"

"I am fine, not important. Big question is how is Garnet?"

"We've heard nothing yet," Beatrix reported sadly, "but I'm hoping to hear anything anytime now."

"Lady Beatrix," Vivi implored with a slight bow, "What can we do to assist?"

"For right now, you all could help me a great deal by remaining right here," the beautiful woman explained, while arising from her seat.

"O - Ok," Vivi bravely agreed while slightly stuttering. "Oh boy!" Quina exclaimed, "We are going to be Queen!"

Viva turned to Quina to disagree, although Beatrix spoke first. "No, Quina, I just need you two to remain here until I come back. I have some important errands to run."

Beatrix quickly strode from the room. Vivi managed to appear almost pale, which was quite a trick for a Black Mage and he took a big gulp. Quina cried out, "Hooray!" and waddled across the Throne Room and took a big leap and landed right on the Queen's Royal Throne.

* * *

Karl Handsome stepped into the rather dark alley in a far less affluent side of town than he was used to. Glancing around quickly, he was attempting to take in everything everywhere all at the same time; such was his level of tension and paranoia.

"Karl! Knock it off! You're actin' so weird, you're frightening _ me." _

"Why did we have to meet here?" Karl whined.

Because it's supposed to be a secret. And you didn't tell anyone where you'd be, did you?"

"No, of course not!" Handsome responded sounding rather indignant.

"Good, now what did this Carlin want?"

"Man, you don't miss much," Karl responded.

"No, I don't and quit screwing around and tell me what she wanted."

"She wanted to know what went wrong and where the Queen was," the man, who represented the middle-class in the Alexandrian government, explained.

"And what did you tell her?"

"What could I tell her?" Karl asked rhetorically. "I don't know anything."

"See that you stay that way." 

* * *

Tyson Michaels, Parliamentarian Jesse Helot's chief of staff and number one personal assistant stepped from street level down into one of the dirtiest dives that passed for a bar in the whole of Alexandria. Stepping up to the bar, he was very happy to notice that there were currently little clientele present. It was the bartender Tyson needed to speak with.

"Let me have a draft, please," he very politely requested, because he certainly realized the folly of not being polite here of all places. The bartender was naturally, given the circumstances, a very large swarthy man in his early thirties with a nasty appearing scar running from underneath his right ear down to his jaw. Tyson had never inquired how that was gained.

The bartender slapped the bottle of beer up on the bar and Helot's assistant slipped a thousand Gil in the form of one bill to the bartender. The bartender looked it over closely to make certain he wasn't being passed counterfeit money and he slipped it into his pocket.

"Yeah," he growled.

"What happened?" asked Michaels.

"Somebody got in the way," the bartender explained.

"Who?" Tyson naturally wanted to know. The bartender tapped his forefinger on the bar. Helot's assistant slipped across another thousand Gil.

The bartender waved Michaels very close, too close as far as he was concerned for he found the bartender's breath to be foul. "It's like this," the bartender began.

* * *

The young Queen raced up the stairwell to the next floor. Opening the door cautiously, she discovered it was unlocked. The dark-haired young woman stepped out into another long hallway of rooms. Not hearing any noise inside the first room, Garnet paused and pushed the door slightly open hoping to learn where she was without giving her presence away.

The room was currently devoid of people, but there was a blackboard on the front wall along with a teacher's desk and lecture podium in front of approximately thirty school desks. _ Why, this is some kind of a school! _ Garnet realized greatly surprised. _ But where and why am I here? _ she wondered.

The good Queen decided to examine some of the books that were being held traditionally on a screen built for such beneath the desks in hopes of learning what school this was. Suddenly hearing a noise outside in the hallway, she ran to the door and slightly opened it and peered into the hall. The young woman espied a group of children exiting what was probably one classroom and then entering another one further down the hallway.

After they had completely disappeared into the room, Garnet decided she'd better just travel down to the staircase at the other end of the corridor as quickly as possible and she ran back out into the hall. _ Oh no! _ she thought with despair as she immediately observed another group of children coming into the hallway right in front on her.

Not having any other options at that point, she dashed into the room she was standing outside of hoping to discover it devoid of people. The raven haired young woman was granted most of her wish, as the only other person in the room was a young attractive woman with brunette hair who was wearing a long, pleasant looking, yellow dress that was buttoned all the way down to the hem.

Standing upon Garnet's unexpected arrival into the room, the woman smiled and asked, "Yes, may I help you?"

With a low screech, the dark-haired young Queen ducked behind the school desk nearest the door, while the friendly young woman, who surely must be a teacher, stood with her mouth agape. With the group of children out in the hallway and a teacher present in the room she was in, Garnet was surely between a rock and a hard place. 


	7. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Seven

For the Love of Garnet

By Robertdogwood@aol.com

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

Original Plot and Characters Copyright Robertdogwood 2002

PG-13 for language and slight nudity

Chapter Seven

The 'Tantalus' hideout was within walking distance of the Inn. As Amarant, even with his long legs, had to struggle with maintaining the quick steps that Zidane was taking, he attempted to fathom what machinations Baku and his gang could be involved in and how this related to the disappearance of Garnet; that is, if indeed it did. The man whose fiery-hair matched his temperament just couldn't or wouldn't believe that 'Tantalus' would independently become involved in political intrigue in another country such as Alexandria. Amarant also would never believe that as mercenary as Baku was that he would ever become involved in any kind of plot for money that would harm Garnet and therefore Zidane. He realized that 'Tantalus' would be loath to become implicated in any kind of shenanigans that would do damage to their relationship with Cid, who appeared to give them full license to do as they please in many areas.

_ I can't get to the depth of this, _ Amarant thought as he and Zidane stepped down the long staircase that led to the area where the hideout was located. _ Some hideout! _ He snorted to himself. _ Hidden in plain sight is more like it. _

It was true that calling the building a hideout for Baku and company was a misnomer. There was nothing hidden about it, unless it being located in a less traveled part of town was considered an advantage. It was correct that 'Tantalus' had attempted to let itself be known as a acting troupe, but it was also correct that it was an open secret to most of Lindblum that they were also highwaymen and adventurers of the first order.

There was also a concession made to further confuse the public with representing their building as a fortune stone shop. Incredibly, as far as Zidane was concerned, they never had any stones for sale when someone wandered in by mistake expecting to see a store as advertised throughout the countryside.

_ I just don't get it, _ Zidane thought. _ That whole store thing is just so lame. Who does Baku think he's fooling anyway?" _

Zidane, as of yet, had not developed the necessary insight which would come with age to realize he was really angry at the fact the evidence seemed to point to his foster father and his old friends having been instrumental in the kidnapping of his beloved Garnet. At this point, he was still more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt under two conditions; one being they adequately explain why the hotel key that had been in the possession of one of them was doing laying under a pile of trash that had once been his belongings and the other condition was that they help him search for Garnet. At the very least, they needed to share with him whatever information they might have come across during their criminal jaunts.

The two men turned right after stepping off the stairs and walked down to 'Tantalus' headquarters. As soon as they stepped inside, Cinna called out, "Hey! It's Zidane."

The Nero brothers, both of indistinguishable species, greeted him. "Good to see you, Zidane. Good to see you, Zidane," they each said separately, while waving their arms up in the air for emphasis. Zidane smiled and nodded, but didn't speak. He was always slightly ill at ease with them. They were just a little too weird, even for his taste.

Marcus, his old comrade, stepped forward and gripped Zidane with his right hand halfway up his old friend's right arm while Zidane mirrored his behavior. "Well met, Zidane," Marcus greeted. "How goes it?"

"It goes not well," Zidane answered while glancing around the room. "Where's Blank?" he wondered.

"He's been out of town for some reason. None was ever volunteered by him or Baku, although I've heard he's back. He's probably paying his respects to Ruby before returning here," Marcus explained.

Ruby had moved back to Lindblum soon after she and Blank had gotten engaged. She had opened a little dinner theatre and appeared very happy the last time Zidane had talked to her.

As if he had heard Marcus mention his name, Baku stepped out from his private room near the back. Always appearing slightly larger than life itself, he sneered and asked, "So what's the grand occasion of the Royal Prince visiting us?"

Zidane realized it would be useless to attempt to be civilized with Baku when he was in one of his moods. "I've come to see if you all have any information that could help me explain why a room key from the Inn here in Lindblum and checked out to one of the gang was discovered under a huge pile of my and Garnet's torn up bedroom on the night she was abducted."

Baku flushed bright red from anger. "I don't have to explain anything to the likes of you, but for your information none of us have been near that Inn for months. Why would we stay there? We live here, for God's sake. Now I have to go, I have a job to do."

Baku rudely brushed by Zidane knocking him sideways on his way through the room and out to the Lindblum streets. Zidane glanced at Marcus, who was gazing sheepishly at the floor. Just then Blank walked in and exclaimed in a tone of surprise, "Zidane! What are you doing here?"

Zidane turned to his close friend, who he really considered his brother and embraced him briefly before stepping back.

Blank, who knew Zidane better than anybody alive, realized he was very perturbed to behave in a such a fashion. "What's wrong? Did you finally get real stupid and leave Garnet?"

Zidane's mouth dropped open momentarily before he spoke. "Wherever did you hear anything about that?"

"From Ruby, of course. Ruby knows everything going on anywhere. No only does she have people visiting her theatre from all over the world, but she has a steady Moggle clientele also. And you know they _ know _ everything."

"Well, I'll be damned," Zidane softly muttered. Zidane pulled his good friend over near the corner away from the other occupants.

"What's going on here, Blank?" Zidane inquired baldly.

Blank barely moved his lips when he answered, as he felt under close scrutiny by the other gang members in the room. "I don't rightly know, Zidane, but something doesn't feel right. Baku send me out of the country on what turned out to be nothing but a wild goose chase. When I return, Ruby tells me she's hardly seen Marcus and when she does, he doesn't say anything. I just don't like the feel of it, Zidane."

Zidane nodded and suggested, "Let's go talk to Ruby."

"Good idea," Blank agreed.

"See you later, Marcus," Zidane called out. Marcus grimly nodded.

Stepping out of the would be theatre, beside Blank and Amarant, Zidane asked his redheaded comrade. "Did you notice anything odd back there?"

"Yes, Zidane," Amarant sighed. "I noticed that when you mentioned Garnet had been kidnapped no one was surprised."

* * *

Steiner was much relieved to observe their airship was circling Lindblum in a holding pattern waiting a turn to land. As badly as he felt he needed to find Zidane, he realized he needed sleep even more than that. Waiting patiently as he had done for most of his life, Steiner was able to just place his mind on hold and basically slip into some sort of a shallow meditative state.

"Thank you again so very much," the older woman expressed to Adelbert, as she stepped out in the aisle from her seat.

"You're quite welcome," Stein replied, snapping out of his relaxed condition. He suddenly realized that Zidane might have arrived in Lindblum tired also and may too have gone to the Inn.

_ Maybe things are starting to look up, _ Steiner thought as the line slowly began to move forward.

* * *

"Vivi, can we both be the Queen?" Quina asked.

Vivi. who so very rarely had a unkind word or even thought towards anyone, hoped that Lady Beatrix would return quickly.

"No, Quina," he sighed. "We both-."

"That's what I thought," Quina interrupted. "I'm Queen and you're King, right?"

_ Good grief! _ Vivi thought. "No, Quina," he said again. "We-."

"Oh, I get it," Quina interrupted yet again. "I'm the Queen, but you're the Royal Prince, like Zidane, right?"

Vivi decided this was probably going to take quite a while to straighten out so he might as well be comfortable and he slowly crossed the room to where a small chair was located and sat down. He sighed deeply and then began, only to be interrupted again but this time by Lani striding into the room.

"Hey, guys! What's cooking and where's Beatrix?" the strong young woman asked.

Before Vivi could explain, Quina questioned, "Is that a way to talk to a Queen?"

Puzzlement crossed Lani's attractive features. "Has Queen Garnet returned?"

"No," Quina replied, shaking her long bill as she spoke. "I Queen until she returns."

Observing the look of confusion and some frustration present on Lani's face, Vivi spoke quickly hoping to forestall any further interaction between Quina and practically everybody else in Alexandria. "Beatrix went out on an errand and unfortunately left us in charge.

Lani threw her head and laughed deeply in full appreciation of Vivi's meaning and plight. "I'm hungry. I think I'll go rustle up some grub while I wait for Beatrix to return."

"Oh, I can help with that," Quina offered. "Come," she said, while jumping down from the Royal Throne. "I take you to food."

"Good deal," Lani responded.

It was only after the two females had left did Vivi sit back in his chair and breath a sigh of relief. He sincerely hoped that Beatrix would return before Quina came back from the kitchen.

* * *

Right at that exact moment the aforementioned Beatrix was being shown into the office of Carlin Phelps, another beautiful, but albeit strong woman. Rising to her feet from behind her desk to pay homage to the female General, who had fought so hard and did so much for Alexandria in their time of direst need, Carlin greeted, "Good day, General."

"Good day, Ms. Phelps," the female warrior replied. "But please call me Beatrix."

"Only if you call me Carlin," the woman politician responded.

Beatrix smiled. "Okay, gladly." "Please have a seat," Carlin invited, while motioning to one of several chairs positioned in front of her desk. "We don't stand on ceremony here."

Beatrix seated herself. She couldn't help but notice that somehow Carlin's desk and chair were much higher than the one she was sitting in. She smiled to herself realizing this for what it was - a psychological ploy to insure the mantle of power. It was the same principle as a judge positioning his or herself higher than the persons brought before the court.

Loath to wasting any time, Carlin ventured while flipping her blonde hair back from around her face, "I take it you're here to talk about Queen Garnet's disappearance?"

Beatrix nodded in affirmation. "And you're wondering," the woman politician continued, "what you can do to gain some control over the situation here in Alexandra before it erupts into something that could not be easily undone?"

Beatrix again nodded yes. "Well, you've come to the right place. Let me tell you what we're going to do," asserted Carlin.

Beatrix smiled and visibly relaxed for the first time since Garnet and Zidane's disappearance.

* * *

Freya met Sir Fratley in front of the Inn as planned and she proceeded to tell him of the little bit she had learned. When she had finished, Fratley responded, "Well, that is rather telling indeed, wouldn't you say, Freya?"

"Yes, Fratley. Indeed it is," she replied while looking at him with adoring eyes.

Fratley extended his arm for his ladylove to grasp and asked, "Shall we toddle over to Doctor Tot's?"

Freya laughed while taking his arm in her's. "Why, Fratley, you made a joke. Yes, I think we should."

Their good fortune continued to hold as Doctor Tot was free to see them immediately. Sometimes, on the contrary, he would be holed up in his observatory for days on end with orders not to be disturbed. The good doctor himself showed them into his book lined study. In fact his whole domicile is book lined, thought Freya, who bemusedly realized that Doctor Tot probably had more books than the Burmecia Public Library.

After seating themselves, Freya commented, "You're looking well, doctor."

"Yes, quite," he replied. "And you two are also."

Sir Fratley shot his lady love a glance that spoke volumes concerning getting to the point. Freya shook her head slightly at him letting him know that it was expected of them to start the conversation with small talk in polite society. But she certainly sympathized with Fratley and understood the urgency of the situation so she launched into the reason for their presence. Of course, Doctor Tot already had heard of the Queen's disappearance and even had a theory of his own.

"What is it?" asked Fratley. "If I may be so bold to ask."

"I think things are not what they seem at first glance," he explained rather cryptically. Observing the confusion reflected on their faces, Doctor Tot went on to say, "Whatever you first decide is the reason behind it and who's responsible, then look elsewhere to discover if there are any alternatives."

Both Freya and Fratley both nodded their heads knowingly. "Well, thank you, doctor, for your time and your insight," Freya replied.

"My pleasure," the good doctor responded, while showing them to the front door. "Now promise me if anything comes up at all that you need help with to come right back."

"Oh, we will, doctor. Don't worry," declared Freya.

Once they were safely back outside and the front door closed, Sir Fratley asked, "What was that all about, Freya?"

"I'll be damned if I know," she answered.

"Freya!" Fratley chastised her. He was old school and didn't believe females should curse.

"Sorry, I felt the situation called for it," Freya apologized.

"Apology accepted and you may be right. Shall we be off to Lindblum?"

"Yes we shall," Freya responded with a twinkle in her eye. Intertwining her arm with his, Freya suggested, "Let's to the Chocobos and be off."

* * *

Jesse Helot sat behind his desk performing the part of his position that he hated the most; actually having to fulfill the list of things that he had promised he would do for people.

Recognizing the timid knock upon his office door, he called out, "Come in." And sure enough it was his assistant, Tyson Michaels who entered his office.

"Well?" Jesse questioned.

"Here," Tyson replied passing his superior a folded piece of paper. The assistant realized his employer was a firm believer in the old saying - 'the walls have ears.'

Jesse sat back in his chair while perusing the information. He finally looked up and asked, "Is he absolutely certain?"

"Yes, he guaranteed it and he's never been wrong."

"Up to now," Helot commented sardonically. He stood up from behind his desk. "I'm going to go check this out. I want you to stay here in case of emergencies. You know the drill, right?"

Tyson nodded thinking back to the countless times his employer had made him study the directives.

Just before leaving his office, the politician declared, "I'll be in touch as soon as I hear anything."

* * *

Lady Hildagarde stood outside of Eiko's bedroom door awaiting admittance. She was a firm believer in children having the same right to privacy that adults did; particularly when the child in question had basically raised herself with the help of some Moggles.

The door opened and Hildagarde beheld the almost always bright shining countenance of Eiko, who was now eight years old going on forty due to the amount of adverse life circumstances she had experienced when younger. According to the little girl, her last two years living with Cid and Hildagarde had been heaven.

"Hello, mother. Come in," Eiko invited sounding almost formal, but she had a twinkle in her eye and the ever present Mog by her side.

"Thank you, my dear," the beautiful older woman replied while sweeping into the room and closing the door.

"Are you aware that Queen Garnet is missing and it is feared that she has been abducted?" Hildagarde asked.

"What?!" screeched Eiko causing the Mog beside her to raise up in surprise.

* * *

The dark-haired young Queen remained ducked behind the school desk nearest the door, while the friendly teacher had finally regained her aplomb from her initial stunned condition and reaffirmed her offer. "Yes, may I help you?"

"Oh, I really hope you can," gushed the young Queen. "For starters, where am I?" Garnet had remained crouched behind the student's desk.

The dark-haired young teacher had flushed a deep pink. "Why, this is the Royal Academy," she explained.

"The Royal Academy of what?" Garnet desperately desired to know what country she was in.

"Please, we don't have time for this right now," the woman instructed. She was unfastening the many buttons on her long yellow dress as quickly as possible.

"Here," she declared, after removing the dress revealing her short silken camisole. "Put this on," the teacher directed.

As Garnet gratefully slipped it on over her body, she gushed, "Oh thank you so much."

The young Queen began to nervously button the dress."

"Leave it," the attractive teacher ordered. "We don't have time right now. Just hold it closed, somebody could come in here anytime."

The woman walked quickly to the door, opened it and peered out into the hall. "There's no one here, come on," she directed the young Queen.

The helpful teacher led Garnet out of the room and then down the hallway. Opening the stairwell, the two young women ran down a flight of stairs and then the teacher led the dark-haired Queen back into a hall and down to a room.

Throwing the room door open, she explained, "Here, this is my room. We'll hide in here for a little while until you can calm down and we can get to the bottom of this."

Garnet stepped into the room and recognized immediately that this was the same room she was held in as a prisoner! The young man and the blonde woman were still present. "Well, lookie what we have here," he exclaimed, while broadly smiling.

"Cut out the foolishness, you two buffoons," the young teacher snarled at them, her amiable features suddenly changing to one of malevolence, "and grab her!"

The young man did as ordered and he reached out and grabbed on to Garnet, who suddenly whirled and bolted from the room leaving him holding on to the unbuttoned yellow dress.

"Oh, crikey! We're in for it now," the blonde woman complained. 


	8. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Eight

FOR THE LOVE OF GARNET

By Robertdogwood

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

Original Plot and Characters Copyright Robertdogwood 2002

PG-13 for language and slight nudity

Chapter Eight

As they quickly strode down a Lindblum boulevard in the direction of Ruby's new dinner theatre, Zidane and Blank caught each other up on the latest occurrences in their lives. Zidane realized he had sorely missed spending time with Blank, as it had been quite awhile since he had been able to visit with his closest friend. Amarant, of course, trudged behind.

"If you two chattering magpies could keep still for a moment, I would like to ask a question," stated Amarant, sardonic as ever.

Zidane turned his head slightly while he continued to stride down the street. "What is it?" he asked.

"What is our grand scheme now? I don't know if you've noticed while you are having your family reunion here, but Garnet is still missing and probably in grave danger.

Zidane flushed and felt immediately guilty. _ Amarant is right, _ the blond haired man thought, _ "What am I doing? _ Holding his thoughts close, Zidane answered, "We're going to go talk to Ruby and then we'll probably go talk to Cid and see if he can do anything to help us."

"Good plan," praised Amarant. "Then let's go do it." The tall redheaded man always knew instinctively how to play Zidane like a fine violin to get the most out of him. Use a fret here, and a stop there.

Nothing more was said by anyone until the three of them approached the immediate vicinity of Ruby's place. "It's down that side street," Blank directed.

They stepped in the direction indicated and the theatre marquee soon came into sight. Zidane observed they were the showing the fantasy 'The Sorceress' Knight.' Turning to Blank, Zidane asked, "Isn't that awfully ambitious for a dinner theatre?"

Blank grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, no. Ruby is a great sorceress and Lowell is a wonderful knight, but just between us - Cinna and Marcus as the Red Dragon leave a lot to be desired."

As they stepped down the stairs leading to the theatre-restaurant, Zidane tried to imagine Ruby playing the role of the sorceress and couldn't quite hold the image in his mind. His musings were cut short when he heard, "Why Zidane, honeychile, whatever are ya all doing hair? And who's this right tall galoof? And Blank?! Didn't ya just get enuff to hold ya for awhile?"

Blank blushed fully while Zidane noticed Ruby appeared as pretty and sexy as ever; wearing one of her beautifully colored full dresses. He felt himself suddenly enveloped in a huge embrace from Ruby.

"Well, say somethang, Zidane!" the woman demanded.

"They've got troubles, Ruby," Blank explained.

She immediately stepped back suddenly all business. Through years of working with Baku's group, Ruby knew all about troubles. "What is it?" she asked seriously.

"Garnet's disappeared," her fiancé further explained.

"And I take it," Ruby asked, "that she hasn't run away from home again?" Zidane shook his head smiling slightly.

"What'd need me to do?" she asked, practical as ever when she needed to be.

"Have you noticed anything about Baku and the rest of them that struck you as being odder that usual?" Zidane asked.

"Lack I was tellin' Blank before, Marcus has been actin' strangely for the last week. He comes in and don't say nothing. And one day they were all in here tawking in the corner and I swar I heard them mention Garnet's name and I wondered why at the time," Ruby answered.

"Thanks, Ruby, that really helps a lot," Zidane responded. "We need to go."

Again Ruby enveloped Zidane in a full embrace. "Now don't go and be such a stranger again, you hair?" she stated.

"I won't, Ruby, but you got to understand. We can't keep meeting like this. I'm a married man now," Zidane quipped while managing to extricate himself from her grasp.

"Haha! Aw, go on with ya," the pretty woman riposted.

As they exited the theatre, Amarant commented, "You surely have a way with the women. What do you attribute that to?"

"Prayer," the blond haired man replied dryly.

* * *

After finally walking down the ramp from the airship, Steiner wondered if he should kneel down and kiss the ground in gratitude that they had finally arrived safely. He decided instead that he should travel to the Inn as quickly as possible. Adelbert didn't travel on an airship anything near as luxurious as the one Zidane flew in, consequently the port the ship landed in was actually outside of Lindblum proper.

Steiner had to wait more than thirty minutes for ground transportation, but at least he found an empty spot on a bench in the waiting area. As he patiently waited, even though inside he felt himself in an incredible hurry, he wondered how his wife was doing back in Alexandria.

* * *

Beatrix strided back into the Throne Room happily surprised to see Lani waiting for her. Vivi and Quina were sitting in the corner quietly squabbling concerning why Quina wasn't Queen.

"Lani," she cried out. "Just who I needed," the female warrior declared.

"What's up, Bea?" Lani asked and then snapped her gum she was busily chewing.

"Come with me, I'll fill you in on the way."

Vivi jumped up from his chair with alarm clearly visible in his eyes. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, Vivi," Beatrix explained turning to him. "I need you and Quina to stay here for a little while longer if possible. It would really help me out."

"But, but-."

Quina interrupted, "Oh boy! You can be King now, Vivi!"

"Thank you so much, Vivi," the beautiful warrior expressed while leading Lani from the room.

They could hear Quina saying, "Come on up to the Queen's Throne, Vivi."

"Aw geez, why me?" Vivi wondered aloud.

* * *

One of the Royal Guardsmen stepped just inside the open door of Minister Artania's chamber. "There are two very disreputable looking villains out here who say they want to see the Regent," he explained.

Artania was seated at his desk and perusing several Royal Proclamations written on the finest parchment. Glancing up from his work, the minister asked, "What are their names?"

"Sir, one of them said his name was Zidane and-."

"You dunce! That's the Royal Prince of Alexandria. Show them into my chamber immediately," Artania interrupted.

"Yes Sir! Right away Sir!" the Royal Guardsman shouted out, while he snapped to attention and then quickly scurried away from the angry minister.

_ Good Lord, now what? _ Artania thought.

* * *

Steiner finally reached the main business section of Lindblum. He vacated the transportation landing area and quickly strided towards the Inn. Old people and small children were jumping from his path even though they were certainly in no danger. They just weren't used to seeing a large man wearing rusty armor taking giant steps toward them.

The loyal knight quickly crossed the street and bolted up the front stairs. Literally bursting into the lobby, Steiner crossed to the front desk.

Standing behind the front desk, the clerk thought, _ Good grief! What a day! Now what do we have here? _ "Yes, may I help you?" the clerk asked, the wariness evident in his voice.

"I hope so," Adelbert spoke in his rich baritone voice. "Has there been a blond young man here with a tail?"

_ Why am I not surprised? _ the clerk thought cynically. "Yes, there was. He was here with a very large long armed redheaded man." And thank God they left. 

"Are they still here?" Steiner anxiously asked.

_ I said was, cretin. That usually denotes past tense, _ he thought. But due to the fact that the large man in the rusty suit of armor seemed to have some sort of large sword with him, the clerk decided courtesy would be the best policy. "No," he answered. "They left over an hour ago."

"Drat!" exclaimed Adelbert.

_ Drat? Who in the world still says drat? _

"How long ago did they leave?" Steiner asked breathlessly. He couldn't believe he was actually this close to Zidane after following him for what seemed so long.

"About an hour ago, sir," the clerk repeated wearily. _ What do I have to do to get this clown out of here? _

"Did they say where they were going?" the loyal knight further questioned.

"No, sir, they didn't. And they also didn't tell me that they knew where the Queen's jewels were either." the clerk answered sarcastically.

_ The Queen's jewels? _ Steiner thought greatly surprised. _ Oh, I imagine that was Zidane's cover story as to what they were looking for. _ "Thank you, you've been very helpful," Adelbert intoned. "And we'll find those jewels I warrant."

Turning to leave, Steiner missed the completely nonplussed expression that lay on the supercilious clerk's face.

* * *

Eight year old Eiko, with her Mog still fluttering nervously around her bedroom, asked, "What are we going to do, mother?"

"Why dear," Lady Hildagarde answered, "that's why I came to you. I'm not sure what we can do. I know all the way inside my bones that Cid knows something about this, but he's not talking. I might have to change him to an oglop again."

"No, don't do that! Please," Eiko protested. It wasn't for Cid that she was concerned. It was for herself. After all, what child would want to have an oglop for a parent? "I think I can make some sort of psychic contact with Garnet, but I need to get someplace quiet by myself."

"You can?" Eiko's foster mother questioned.

"Yes!" Eiko exclaimed emphatically with a nod of her head. "I'm going up on top."

And ordering her Mog to remain behind, who felt rather hurt about that, Eiko left her bedroom. Contrary to what she informed Hildagarde, Eiko was going to pay a visit on Artania. That was why she insisted Mog remain behind for Moggles did not approve of mendaciousness unless it was in the cause of self defense.

The same Royal Guardsman showed Eiko into Minister Artania's chamber and shut the door on his way out.

Artania greeted, "Hello, Eiko. Is there something I can help you with? By the way," he continued, "Zidane was just here. He went to see Cid"

"Hmm," the little girl commented. "Yes there is, Minister Artania, I want to know what's going on with Garnet and I'm not leaving here until you tell me." And she bestowed a large smile upon him.

"Uh...uh," Artania stammered.

* * *

"Good day, Zidane. How wonderful to see you again," Cid greeted with a note of false jocularity in his voice. "And I'm sorry, who is your friend again?"

Zidane and Amarant had just been shown into Cid's Throne Room. "This is Amarant, who is helping me out," the Royal Prince answered.

"Oh yes, I remember now. How are you?" the ruler of Lindblum answered and received a nod in return from Amarant.

Cid stroked both ends of his long handlebar mustache and decided to not wait, but just take the bull by the horns, so to speak. "I suppose you're here about any information I might have concerning Garnet's disappearance."

"Yes, of course," Zidane expressed, his anguish evident in his tone. "Have you heard anything at all. I was picking up some bad feelings from Baku's behavior about this. Has he been to see you?"

"Well, ahem, you know," Cid answered while continuing to stroke his long mustache. "Of course Baku has been to see me numerous times in the past."

"Yes, I realized that, Cid," the long haired man answered impatiently. "Has he been to see you recently?"

"Well, you know, Zidane, even though I'm Garnet's uncle, we do represent different countries. Now if I see Baku on something to do with state security, that is really no concern of yours. I understand you might find this harsh, but I'm certain that Garnet will show up soon safe and sound."

A short while later as Zidane and Amarant had left Cid's presence and were being shown from the Palace, Zidane asked in a low tone so as to not be overheard. "Did Cid appear to be acting suspicious to you?"

"Yep," was his partner's laconic reply.

* * *

Bursting into her bedroom, Eiko excitedly exclaimed, "It worked, it worked! I know where she is!"

"Oh, that's grand news, dear, but calm down," Lady Hildagarde entreated.

Paying the admonition no mind at all, Eiko tugged on her foster mother's arm. "Come on, we need to hurry."

"But where is she?" Hildagarde naturally desired to know.

"I'll tell you on the way, now hurry!" the little girl insisted.

* * *

Freya and Sir Fratley landed their Golden Chocobos just outside of Lindblum City proper. "Buying these Golden Chocobos was just a wonderful idea, Fratley," Freya praised.

"Why yes it was," Sir Fratley agreed. "One could say they were worth their weight in gold, couldn't they?"

"Hehe, you made another pun, Fratley. What's gotten into you?" asked his female partner.

They boarded their Chocobos at a local stable and immediately took some ground transportation into the City of Lindblum. Approaching the Royal Palace on foot, Freya expressed, "Let's hope that Cid can throw light on this very dark subject."

"Indeed," Sir Fratley agreed.

* * *

Steiner hurried down the steps from the Inn on his way to the Royal Palace to seek an audience with Cid when he was more than a little surprised to observe Jesse Helot coming down the steps from the ground transportation waiting area. _ Why would a politician from Alexandria be here when Parliament in still in session? _ Adelbert wondered.

Quickly deciding to follow him because he had a gut feeling this could lead to something important, the loyal knight stepped back into the alleyway in order not to be seen by Helot. As the politician stepped lively toward the business district, Steiner mingled with the crowd in order to be able to stay close enough to discover where he was heading and yet not be observed by Helot.

* * *

Zidane and his redheaded companion had just exited the main gates of the Royal Palace of Lindblum when they were greeted in surprise by the approaching Freya and Sir Fratley.

"Zidane!" Freya called out excitedly.

"Well met," Sir Fratley intoned.

Amarant espying Freya automatically stiffened with tension at the sight of her. Zidane noticed this immediately and cautioned him in no uncertain terms he would brook no nonsense at this point in time.

"Don't waste your time talking with Cid," Zidane stated flatly. "He won't tell you anything."

Freya asked, "Zidane, have you seen Steiner?"

"Steiner? No, I haven't seen him," answered the young man. "Should I have?"

Before Freya could answer, Lady Hildagarde and Eiko appeared through the opened Palace doors. "Zidane!" Eiko happily cried out. The little girl rushed toward him and embraced him around his waist.

"What's going on?" he wondered.

"Come on, come on!" Eiko insisted while tugging at Zidane's right arm. Her Moggle floated all around her in excitement. "We going to go get Garnet. We have a Royal Coach waiting."

Quicker than a wink of an eye, all of them were crammed inside a Royal Coach. The coachman flicked his whip one time above the heads of his four steeds and they careened off down the boulevard toward the business district.

* * *

Beatrix and Lani were standing outside of the wide double doors of the Alexandrian Parliament. "Just follow my lead," the beautiful warrior directed, "and stand against the right wall and be ready for anything."

Lani nodded silently, her pretty face suddenly grim in anticipation of trouble and followed Beatrix into the large chamber. Beatrix strode to the front of the large room while Lani situated herself against the right wall.

Beatrix nodded to the Sergeant at Arms, who snapped to attention and intoned, "May it be known that the two hundredth session of Parliament in the year of our Lord-."

The double doors suddenly burst open and two hundred armed brown shirted mercenaries headed by Tyson Mathews entered. "I claim control of this government in the extreme emergency of the good Queen Garnet being currently unable to rule. Submit peaceably and no one will be hurt."

Suddenly in the very back of the room, Carlin Phelps stood up and cried out an order. "Now!" she shouted.

Alexandrian troops entered through all doors in the back and front of the great hall. They quickly took complete charge of the situation lead by General Beatrix with her famous sword unsheathed and Lani splintering an empty chair with her giant ax just to keep their attention. As the troops began to lead the now weaponless rebels away to be placed under arrest, Beatrix smiled at Carlin in the back of the room. The beautiful politician smiled back and nodded. Once again courageous women had saved the fall of Alexandria.

* * *

The young man stood as if he were planted in the room holding the long yellow dress in his hands and openly admiring the attractive teacher dressed only in her short silken camisole.

"Get an oil painting. It'll last longer," his partner, the blonde woman commented snidely.

"You perverted cretin!" screeched the young teacher. "Give me that!" she ordered while snatching her dress from his hands. "And go fetch the Queen!"

The young man whirled and raced into the hall, but the Queen was once again nowhere to be seen. Garnet had raced down to the end of the hall that led to the stairwell that headed down. She was completely panicked now and had no idea what was happening to her or who she should turn to in her time of need.

The dark-haired young woman opened the door to the stairwell and began running down the stairs with a reckless abandon risking a serious accident with one misstep. Garnet couldn't believe her own ears as she suddenly heard the young man moving down the staircase behind her and people speaking on the steps two flights below her.

Luckily before any of them noticed her, the Queen was able to enter the hallway on the first floor she came to. Experiencing a momentary breath of relief when she observed no one in the corridor and not hearing anything, Garnet decided to risk peering carefully into rooms. She realized she needed to get out of the hallway as quickly as possible before anyone happened along.

The black-haired woman gripped the first door she came to and opened it so very carefully to peer into the room. Seeing no one inside, Garnet quickly entered the room and shut the door quietly behind her. She was careful to latch the door shut. The Queen realized it wouldn't hold if someone of bulk wanted to enter, but that it would keep the ordinary individual at bay for awhile.

Quickly glancing around the room, Garnet espied a student's typical bedroom. There was a single bed against the far wall. There were several pictures of pastoral beauty hanging on the walls, the obligatory poster of Lowell, a large bureau, a walk in closet, and a large desk situated by the open windows to facilitate better viewing in the day time.

The Queen crossed to the walk in closet and began to rummage through it. _ Darn, _ she thought. _ "There's only school uniforms in here. Oh well, when in - what was that expression again? _

Pulling one of the school uniforms out of the closet where five or six were hanging neatly, she held it up lengthwise to her body. _ It's going to be a tight fit and it's too short, _ she realized. _ But beggars can't be choosers - there, I did remember that one. _

Quickly donning the student's apparel, Garnet crossed to the desk and began riffling through papers until she found what she was looking for. _ So that's where I am, but what am I doing here? _

The young woman scrutinized the room rapidly for any sort of possible weapons, but to no avail; unless she wanted to attempt to use a throw pillow as protection, she realized sardonically. Garnet realized she had accomplished all she could in the room except to ascertain what floor she might be on. She hurried to the window and looked down and was disappointed that it was too still high for her to risk jumping without fear of serious injury.

Suddenly a key was inserted into the door and a blonde teenager entered the bedroom. Garnet raced toward the opened door and in the process knocked the girl to the floor.

"Ow!" she cried out.

Feeling instantly ashamed, the Queen whirled and leaned down helping the teenager to her feet. "Are you okay?" she asked solicitously.

"Who are the hell are you and why are you wearing my damn uniform?" the student demanded haughtily.

Garnet raised to her fullest height which wasn't a lot taller than the blonde student and stated, "I am Queen Garnet Til Alexandros 17th of Alexandria and you watch your language, young lady before I wash your mouth out with soap. I will return your uniform at a later time. Now, good day!"

Garnet fled the room leaving the teenager standing behind with her mouth agape. The young Queen feeling much more self confident now for obvious reasons ran back down the corridor to the staircase that would lead her down to the ground floor. She ran down three more flights without incident before bursting on to the first floor.

* * *

Steiner continued to follow Jesse Helot at a discreet distance as he strode with purpose through the Lindblum business district, although it really wasn't necessary because the Alexandrian politician looked neither to his left or right but straight ahead. It had become apparent to Adelbert that Helot was on a mission; what that mission was remained to be seen.

Jesse walked briskly several more blocks before taking a right down a side street. It was becoming increasing more difficult for Steiner to keep up with the politico's fast pace because of his heavy armor and need to avoid people in the crowd. They traveled along several more blocks until they were actually out of the business district completely and into a more rural area.

Jesse then did something passing strange to Adelbert's understanding. He stopped and commissioned a carriage much to the loyal knights dismay, who realized he couldn't begin to keep pace with four horses. Helot entered the coach and then directed the driver to take an immediate right up a long driveway to a large ornate appearing building with columns and a fine looking wide grass front yard. The politician jumped down from the carriage and entered the building.

_ That's strange, _ Steiner thought as he hurried up the long driveway. _ I didn't think he had any children. Maybe he's going to visit a niece or nephew. _ As though to add insult to injury, a carriage thundered by Adelbert throwing small pebbles and dirt on him. The good natured Steiner finally broke down under all the stresses of the last thirty-six hours and he shook his fist at the coach as it went by.

* * *

Garnet ran into the fulsome first floor lobby area. A brunette middle-aged woman stood up from behind a long counter that held an information sign on it. "May I help you?" she asked rather forcefully.

The young Queen had already learned her lesson the hard way that no one could be currently trusted and she continued to run to the front doors. She narrowed the gap almost completely and then the doors opened. Jesse Helot strode in and Garnet ran straight into him! He rocked back on his feet and almost fell to the floor but by fully embracing the young woman Jesse was able to maintain his balance.

"Oh Representative Helot! Thank you so much for catching me. How fortunate that you are here to help me," gushed the young woman. A sudden thought crossed Garnet's mind and her eyes narrowed. "Why are you here?" she asked suddenly quite stern sounding.

"Why, to help you escape," Jesse explained. "Come, I have a carriage waiting for us outside." And he grabbed her by the upper arm and began to forcibly walk her out the doors.

* * *

Inside the carriage commissioned by Lady Hildagarde, Amarant growled loudly to be heard over the din caused by their conveyance. "Wasn't that Steiner who just shook his fist at us?"

"Why yes, I think you're right," Freya replied with a smile realizing the humor inherent in the situation.

Amarant nodded to her silently and Zidane recognized the almost total uniqueness of those two having a successful interaction. He quickly stuck his head out of the coach's window and looked behind. The young man waved his arm in a wide arc until he saw that Steiner waved back.

The carriage lumbered to a stop in front of the building and everyone piled out of the carriage just as Adelbert came running up. _ I can't believe I finally caught up with him, _ he thought. 

"Zidane, what's going on here?" Steiner asked.

* * *

Morrison and Montose the Moggles were wandering lost in the outer reaches of the business district in Lindblum and squabbling incessantly.

"You said you knew the way to the Palace," Morrison accused.

"I do, I did," Montose insisted. "They must have moved it."

"Come on," Morrison retorted. "You don't expect me to believe that they moved the entire Palace and we never heard about it."

"Look!" Montose cried out. "There's Eiko up there." He pointed up the long driveway.

"It sure is," Montose agreed after squinting up the hill. He was a bit nearsighted and too vain to wear glasses. "Let's go," he directed. And the Moggles began bumping their way up the incline.

* * *

Zidane turned to Adelbert to answer his question when he suddenly was astounded to observe Jesse Helot dragging Garnet through the front doors. Although the Royal Prince wasn't half as surprised as the politician was when he stepped out and espied the large group of the Queen's supporters.

Helot quickly hauled out a small dagger and held it tightly to the Queen's throat. The pain of the cold steel pressing against her skin barely registered in her mind. Nor did the warm blood trickling down her neck and staining her blouse have any impact on her feverish thoughts.

_ It's Zidane! _ was all Garnet could think. _ He came back! He came back to me! _

"Don't anybody move," he commanded in a voice stern enough to brook no interference. "I don't want to hurt the Queen but I will if you make me. She and I are going to get into that carriage and we are leaving. As we speak my supporters in Alexandria are picking up the dropped reins of our government and will continue to if I can prove the Queen is no longer a viable alternative to our government. Dead or alive, it doesn't matter to me."

Helot began to inch forward, pushing the struggling Garnet before him. Although her thrashing forced the dagger deeper into her tender flesh she continued to fight with all her strength. The warmth of the Queen's life fluids flowed over her captor's hand and he looked down, startled.

Only Steiner saw the fleeting expression of fear and nausea that flashed briefly over the Alexandrian politician's face. He had no time to weigh the consequences in his mind. Steiner knew in that instant that Helot was bluffing. Seizing his opportunity, Steiner lurched forward and swiped the dagger from Helot's hand. The blade skittered across the front walk with a metallic clatter.

Taking that brief moment of confusion as his cue, Zidane leaped at Helot. With all his strength behind it, Zidane planted his fist on Jesse's face with a hollow thwack. Jesse emitted a grunt as he hit the ground, conscious but dazed.

"Zidane!" Garnet screamed as she closed the distance between them and fell into Zidane's open embrace. "You came back, you came back," she said between sobs of relief. 


	9. For the Love of Garnet Chapter Nine

For the Love of Garnet

By Robertdogwood

Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft.

PG-13 for language and slight nudity

Chapter Nine

Everyone involved had finally wended their way to the Palace in Lindblum. Queen Garnet received some medical attention and something more appropriate to wear. While Jesse Helot was being escorted by some of the Palace guards to a dungeon cell where he would remain until he was transported back to Alexandria in chains to stand trial under the serious charges of Sedition and Treason, the rest of the party traveled to the Regent's Throne Room.

After they all tramped inside the large ornate room, they apparently surprised Cid and Baku who appeared to be involved in quite an agitated conversation. Baku was totally unable to keep his expression of astonishment off his face at not only the size of the group who were now suddenly standing before him, but also some of the people that it contained.

Cid flushed deep crimson to be caught figuratively with his pants down, as he was unable to arrive at any sort of an appropriate response to the scene set before him.

Lady Hildagarde marched up to him and spoke quietly but forcefully, "Ok Cid, enough is enough. Spill it."

Cid looked helplessly from one member of the group to another for any obvious support written on their face. Finally admitting to himself there was none present, not even from Eiko who appeared especially irritated with him, he acquiesced.

"Alright," he declared holding his hands up as in surrender. "Everyone, sit down," he directed. "This may take awhile."

After everyone was comfortably seated and looking at him in total askance of a explanation to all of their questions, Cid began. "Approximately a month ago a very persistent rumor reached my ears that certain parties were going to attempt to remove Garnet from the throne and take over the reins of the government themselves. Regardless of my relationship to Garnet and my feelings towards her, this happenstance could negatively affect our kingdom as well."

"Unfortunately I didn't feel as though the correct thing to do would be to warn you, because of a number of reasons; the main one being that I really didn't have any factual information to go on. I assumed and rightly so I still believe that you, Garnet, would have refused to believe me and even if you had, you would have refused to go into hiding."

"And I was worried by telling you that it would somehow alert the rebels and they would go further underground therefore making it that much harder to root them out when the time came. So first I reached out to Baku, as I have done in the past."

Here Cid nodded at the rather rotund bandit leader and then continued. "And when he and his fellows, through no fault of their own I might add, could not find a trace who the traitors might be I had him go ahead and kidnap the Queen to keep her safe, I thought."

"I was keeping close tabs on her through Artania's reports to me on the matter. I should have realized that with all that she's been through Garnet would not be comfortable to just remain a bird in a gilded cage but would attempt to escape."

I was hoping that her mysterious disappearance would cause the rebels to step forward and eventually it did, I suppose. I did realize, however, that the entire scheme was unraveling badly by the time Zidane and this larger fellow showed up searching for Garnet. It suddenly seemed as if everybody was asking me where Garnet was."

"Well, you did know where she was," accused Lady Hildagarde.

"Quite right, my dear, of course," Cid answered, while stroking the ends of his long mustache nervously.

"Why I ought to turn you into a little worm, Cid," his elegant wife threatened.

Eiko jumped up from her chair and rushed to the Regent's side. "Don't mother," she pleaded. "For my sake, no child wants a worm for a father and besides it's all turned out well, hasn't it everybody?"

Zidane stood up and pulled Garnet from her chair to him, giving her another hug, the hundred and fiftieth since being reunited with her. "Garnet and I are happy. That should be enough for anyone, shouldn't it love?" he asked his wife.

She smiled and offered him a chaste kiss on his cheek, ever mindful that she was Queen and represented the throne of Alexandria, no matter how badly she desired to return to Alexandria and share love anew with her husband.

Amarant questioned, "So why tear up their bedroom so or were you searching for something as Zidane had surmised?"

"I had only advised Baku to make certain it looked as if thieves were looking for something of value and that kidnapping the Queen was just an afterthought, as though she had been taken to keep her from identifying them. As to what his group of ruffians did after that, I really can't say," the Regent explained looking in askance at Baku.

The gang leader, flushed, and scratched the back of his head before deigning to answer. "I just told them to go through some stuff. I didn't tell them to make a shambles of the place and I certainly didn't tell them to lose their Inn room key!"

"Haha!" Zidane laughed. "Who did that, by the way? I meant to ask you."

Baku shook his head. "Nobody would own it although I offered to beat it out of all of them, but I didn't have time. Things were moving too quickly by that time.

"What prompted Jesse Helot to act in such a manner? What was he hoping to accomplish?" Freya asked.

Cid responded, "It would appear that Helot planned to take over the throne and govern the country in a dictatorship, although I am certain he would explain it as an enlightened despotism. I'm positive that to maintain power in the beginning he would merge his power to include Karl Handsome's party but later after he could get his private army in replacement of the real Alexandrian army he would begin to systemically root out anyone who might match him in power."

"So Karl Handsome was in league with him?" Steiner asked.

"No, I don't believe he was. Actually I suspect Karl is rather on the dim side and probably didn't know a thing about it and wouldn't have until Jesse was in power. Then if people wanted to survive they would have had a choice to make - either join with Jesse or be put to death as traitors to the state," Cid answered.

"Wow! That would have been pretty ironic," Freya commented, "to be put to death as a traitor by a traitor."

"Yes, it would have," the Regent agreed. "Although history is full of such ironies."

"I don't know about anybody else, but I am eager to commence my journey home to Alexandria," Steiner announced.

"What's the matter, Steiner? Trying to avoid those Lindblum Gysahl pickles?" Garnet asked with a giggle.

Steiner flushed uncomfortably. The Queen of course was referring to the occasion when Steiner snuck Garnet through South Gate in a sack of smelly Gysahl pickles, although that certainly wasn't the entire story. The brave knight had inadvertently turned around at an inopportune time when Garnet was emerging from the sack in a more than underdressed condition because she hadn't wanted her clothes to reek of pickles for the remainder of their journey to Alexandria.

Steiner had been woefully embarrassed and kept speaking of permission to poke his eyes out for their misconduct. Only being a young princess at the time, Garnet realizing the whole episode had been a mere accident was a good sport about it and just laughed.

Steiner had elicited her vow of secrecy concerning the incident and it was this that worried him so now. The loyal knight should not have worried so. The young Queen might have had faults but indiscretion and not keeping her word was not one of them.

"No, your Majesty," he intoned in explanation. "I wish to arrive back at Alexandria as quickly as possible in order to help my wife, Lady Beatrix, until your safe return."

"Of course, Steiner," the Queen answered. "How unfair of me."

"You're welcome to fly with us on our Chocobos, isn't he, Fratley?" Freya offered.

Sir Fratley nodded sagaciously but said nothing desiring only to get on with it so they could return to his beloved Burmecia as quickly as possible. All of this small talk was making him impatient. The Queen was safe. That was the important thing. The whys and wherefores did not interest him in the least.

Steiner blanched at the thought. He was not overly fond of Chocobo flight, although remembering the capriciousness of the airship flight initially to Lindblum caused him to say he would be most happy to go with them. As the trio of heroes bowed to the Queen to leave her presence, she told them, "Godspeed and thanks be to you all for your great service in my name. Steiner, please help Beatrix hold everything together until we return."

"I will, your Majesty," he assured Garnet.

Amarant explained, "I'm leaving too but I think I'll go see when the next airship is scheduled to leave for Alexandria. I've had some bad experiences with Chocobos in the past."

Hiding his first impulse to laugh, Zidane offered his gratitude to Amarant for all of his assistance. After they had exited Lady Hildagarde asked, "What will happen now to Mr. Helot?" Cid's wife was pointedly not using Jesse's title as a representative of the Parliament of Alexandria.

"He'll be put on trial for Sedition and when found guilty which I have no doubt he will be he'll then be sentenced to death," Garnet answered.

Eiko gasped and covered her Mog's ears while her good foster mother exclaimed, "Oh, how awful."

The Queen giggled most inappropriately and replied, "Oh, I'll commute his sentence to life imprisonment without parole, but after a few years he'll wish he had just been put to death."

"He looks in fine shape for his age so he'll probably live another forty to fifty years," Zidane offered.

"So what did happen in that 'safe' environment Cid had you placed in anyway, Garnet?" Lady Hildagarde went on to ask.

Cid flushed, coughed into his hand and looked away while the young Queen replied, "I think that's best left unsaid. After all, Uncle Cid's heart was in the right place." Garnet beamed her smile at the grateful Regent.

"It's not his heart I ever worry about," his wife countered. "It's his mind I'm most concerned with."

"Now Hildy," Cid attempted to assuage his beautiful wife.

"Don't Hildy me, you scoundrel."

Attempting to change the subject, Minister Artania asked the visiting Mogs, "So will you be staying the night?"

Morrison the Mog said, "Certainly not, we have to get back to Madain Sari as soon as possible."

"No way, no way," Montrose exploded. "I've come to see Lady Eiko and see Lady Eiko I will."

"Yes, that's right, Morrison," Eiko agreed. "Zidane and Garnet will drop you off from an airship tomorrow."

"Well, hopefully they'll land first," joked Montrose the Mog.

"What?!" screeched Morrison, his pom-pom waving wildly above his head.

"Montose is just teasing, Morrison. You stop that, Montrose," cautioned Eiko.

Montrose hung his head in shame hitting Eiko with his pom-pom knocking her slightly backwards. "I'm sorry," the Mog said.

"Montrose! Will you please be careful. You're striking Lady Eiko," Morrison accused.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he again stated while beginning to lower his head again. Eiko grabbed him and pulled his head up. "No more apologies. I can't stand them right now. Let's go," she directed and the small girl and the three Mogs left the room.

"Well, I am a bit tired," Garnet offered.

When Cid made no response, Lady Hildagarde kicked him in the ankle. "Ow!" the Regent exclaimed. "What is it now, Hildagarde?"

"Cid, didn't you just hear - oh never mind. Come on, you two. I'll show you to your room myself," and she led the two young people from the throne room. Behind them Baku and Cid were once again as thick as thieves. Lady Hildagarde just knew they were busy with the planning of their lies to cover their miserable backsides.

After escorting the royal couple into one of the large guest bedrooms, Lady Hildagarde dropped her voice conspiratorially and spoke. "You can tell me, dear. I won't say anything. What really happened in that school?"

"Nothing, really," smiled Garnet. "It was just fine."

Cid's wife sighed loudly. She knew people were being less than forthright with her but she was intelligent to realize she was never going to learn anything further.

"Well, I'll leave you children to your own devices. And I'll make certain Cid has his fastest airship ready to transport you home tomorrow. As far as I'm concerned, it's the least he can do."

"We're so grateful," murmured the Queen.

"Yeah, thanks a lot," Zidane reaffirmed.

"You're certainly welcome," Lady Hildagarde replied leaving the room and pulling the door closed behind her.

"Welcome home," smiled Garnet.

"Home? We're not in Alexandria."

"I've decided that wherever we are, if we're together, then we're home," explained the lovely young woman.

"I like your thinking," Zidane responded, and bent down and lovingly kissed her.

______

Several hours later Lady Beatrix and Lani sat quietly talking in the Alexandrian Throne Room. The excitement had finally died down and order had been restored. Parliament had been temporarily suspended until if and when Queen Garnet returned. Vivi and Quina had been allowed finally to acquire some dinner and it sounded to Beatrix as if Vivi was going to be unable to avoid eating Quina's oglop stew.

Both of the young warrior women looked up in surprise when the inner doors opened and someone walked in without seeking permission to enter first.

"Steiner!" Beatrix joyously cried out as she immediately espied the solid form of her beloved husband. Lani smiled to herself watching how much at peace the fearsome female warrior suddenly appeared at the sight of her husband arriving back home safely.

After their initial happy hug and kiss, Steiner went on to explain that Queen Garnet was safe and she and the Royal Prince would appear in Alexandria on the morrow.

"And you'll never guess who was behind it all," Steiner spoke excitedly.

"Jesse Helot," Lani interrupted.

Steiner's mouth fell open for a few seconds in shock. "However did you know?" he was finally able to ask.

Beatrix explained how the female soldier, mercenary, and politician joined forces to save Alexandria from being taken over in a coup by Helot's second-in-command, Tyson Michaels and his private army of brown shirts.

When his lovely wife had concluded, Steiner's eyes were shining in pride when he congratulated them for a job well done.

_____

From the table in the back of the stylishly semi-darkened restaurant Carlin Phelps sighed and softly called out, "Karl, back here."

He had been wandering around the establishment for the last five minutes searching for her. Arriving at the table, Karl took a seat and spoke, "Ah, Carlin, as beautiful as ever."

"Can it," the female politician retorted. "I would like to get home to my husband for a change. What do you want, anyway?"

"Well, I…..," Karl said and then stopped. "I was wondering if…"

"I know, Karl. Let me say it for you," the irritated beauty interrupted. "You want to know if you're in any trouble."

"Yes, yes, that's it exactly," Karl agreed excitedly.

"Well, is there a reason you should be?" Carlin inquired caustically.

"Of course not! I didn't know anything about any of it. I was just frightened that people might think I did, since I appeared to have a working relationship with Jesse."

"No, Karl," Carlin smiled. "Nobody ever thinks you know about anything."

"Oh good," the man answered, the relief evident in his voice.

_____

Garnet stepped out of their private bathroom connected to the guest bedroom. She was grateful to see her husband had already turned out the bedroom lights. The moonlight that shone in through the bedroom windows was more than enough to see by to negotiate the room.

The beautiful young woman made her way to the side of the queen-sized bed, dropped her dressing gown down to the floor and slid into the bed to lie beside her husband. Garnet observed Zidane's eyes were closed and he appeared to be breathing deeply and she disappointedly wondered if she had taken too long in her preparation in the bathroom and he had fallen asleep.

Suddenly one of his eyes flew open and he smiled deeply at her.

"Oh you!" Garnet exclaimed with a laugh and she threw herself on her husband in an embrace.

"I love you, Garnet," murmured Zidane.

"I love you too, my husband," the young Queen echoed. And so it went throughout the beautiful night.

The End

A/N Thank you for the very kind reviews. I have really enjoyed writing this when there are people who enjoy reading it. I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to Ifalna who helped me with the end of chapter eight and Vick330 who has offered very valuable suggestions to me from the beginning and his support all the way through.

I would like to dedicate this fic to all the people who have done their best to keep the Fantasy alive. In the world today, we need all the fantasies we can get. 


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